UC-NRLF 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER 


THE  RETAIL   LUMBER  TRADE,  ITS   DIFFICULTIES  AND 

SUCCESSES,  ITS  HUMOR  AND  PHILOSOPHY, 

ITS   THEORY   AND    PRACTICE, 

WITH  PRACTICAL  YARD 

IDEAS. 


By  MET  L.  SALEY 


DEDICATED  TO  THE  RETAIL  LUMBER  DEALERS 
OP  THE  UNITED  STATES 


Compiled  from  "The  Realm  of  the  Retailer"  as  Published  in 
The  American  Lumberman 

SECOND   EDITION 

CHICAGO 
THE  AMERICAN  LUMBERMAN 


Copyright, 
BY 

THR  AMERICAN  LUMBERMAN 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

The  New   Year n 

Qualifications  of  a  Good   Lumberman 12 

Different   Types   of  Competitors 14 

The  Art  of  Looking  at  Things 17 

Excuses    for    Scrapping 21 

An   Advertising    Suggestion    . . 22   / 

Knowing  What  Lumber  is  Wanted  for  .- 25  » 

Shed   Defects    , 27 

Mixing  Implements  and  Lumber 35 

Characteristics    of    Trade 38 

Value    of    Appearance     43 

Prompt   Payment   and   Otherwise    45 

Bills   Should   Go   With    Lumber 47 

Comfortable   Offices    52 

An  Easy  Way  to  Hang  Doors 54 

An  Eye  on  the  Prices  of  Others  55 

Politics   in   Trade    58 

Where  to  Get  Trade  62 

Things  Which  Exasperate  Must  Be  Expected   67 

A   Labor   Saver    70 

Selling    for    Cash    73 

Handling    Hardware    77 

Steady   Prices  Wanted    81 

How  Your  Customers  Grade   83 

Defects  in  a  Coal  House  87 

Approaching  Dullness 88 

Lending    Lumber    92 

Open  and  Closed  Sheds 94 

Hypnotic    Power    96 

Handling  Town  and  Country  Trade  99 

Keeping  the  Poacher  Out    102      / 

Selling   Lumber  from   Sample    105  y 

The  School  That  Would  Please  the  Yard  Man 107 

Grades   in  Yard   Men 108 

The  Rage  for  Big  Towns no 

Methods   of  Buying   Yards    112 

The    Arbitration    Idea    114 

Division  of  Shed  Bins   117 

Pleasing  the  Farmer  Customer 118 

Many    New    Yards    121 

The   Wholesale   Dealers'   Complaint 124 

Tricks  of  Wholesale  Men 126 

Forgetfulness   in    Charging    128 

Perfect    Balances     130 

Cogs  Which  Do  Not  Mesh 133 

Different  Qualifications  of  Partners  136 


369935 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Farmer    Yards    138 

Standing  in  with  Contractors '. 140 

A   Handy  Door   Rack 142 

The    Glorious    Fourth 144 

From   Country  to   City 145 

How  the  Poor  Swede  Bit 148 

More  or  Fewer  Yards 149 

The  Prudent  Schemer 152 

Where  Carelessness  May  Succeed 156 

The  Contractor  as  a  Factor 15? 

Disadvantages  of  Small  Stock  Rooms 159 

A   Pessimistic  Lumber   Seller 162 

Points    on    Collecting 166 

The  Art  of  Buying  Right 168 

Increasing  Profits  by  Glazing 170 

Kodak   as   a   Trade    Winner 171 

Side  Lines    174 

A  Device  for  Hanging  Doors 177 

Ruinous  Wrangling 179 

The  Kind  of  a  Letter  to  Write 181 

Concerning   Minor  Things 182 

To  Protect  the  Edges  of  Loads 185 

Keeping  Tab  on  Yard  Hands 186 

In  Fear  of  the  Line  Yard  Men 187 

Mood  as  a  Motive 190 

Opposed  to  Retail  Association 192 

An  Improved  Bolster 195 

Read  and  You  Will  Know 196 

An  Effective  Door  Fastener 200 

Material  That   Is  Returned 201 

Staving  Off  Collections 203 

Change   in   Yard   Managers 205 

Cheap  Shed  Gutter 206 

Patent  Lath   , 207 

-Cost    of    Selling    Lumber 209 

To  Help  from  Car  to  Shed 211 

Off  to  the  Ball  Game 212 

Eaves  Troughs  on  Shed  Hoods 21 S 

A  Bill  in  Detail  Wanted 216 

Lumber's    Flight 218 

A   Novel    Lime   House 220 

Our    Little    Differences 221 

A    Case    of    Screens 225 

Should    He    Sell    Hemlock? 228 

A    Shingle    Display 231 

Knowing   One's   Business 232 

The  Man  In  the  Yard 234 

A    Pile   Binder 237 

Inadequate  Office  and   Yard   Help 238 

Getting    Out    Mill    Work 242 

Maple  and  Birch  Flooring 246 

Unevenness   of   Trade 247 

Wagon    Stakes 250 

The    Two    Kinds 252 

Reasons    for    Thanks 255 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Picking    Over    Stock 259 

Locating  on  Track 261 

The    Virtue    of    Relaxation 263 

Price    Lists 265 

How  to  Pile  Drain  Pipe 269 

A    Swell    Pronunciation 271 

Selling  Out-of-Date  Stock i 271 

Duplicate    Receipts 273 

Cramped  Quarters 276 

Preserving  the  Fresh  Look 277 

The    Square    Man 279 

Fallacy  of  Saying  "No" 281 

The  Man  Who  Knows  It  All 283 

Blind   Yards    287 

Objections  to  Small  Stocks 290 

Legal    Kinks 291 

Light  Rigs  For  Light  Work 293 

Handy  For  the  Delivery  Man 295 

The    Set   Jaw 296 

Woes  of  the  Coal  Man 298 

Converted  to  Reasonable  Prices 301 

Oak   for   Bridges 304 

Getting  a  Customer's  Standing 306 

Out  of  His   Place 309 

Gates  and  Doors 313 

Taking   Winter   Easy 316 

Senseless   Objection   to    Doors 318 

Canceling  and   Registering  Orders 320 

Salt   in    Shed    Alleys 324 

On  the  Alert  for  Trouble 326 

A  Trade  Puller 329 

Storm    Doors    330 

Location   and   Competition 332 

Slow   Paying  Farmers 335 

The  Right  Kind  of  Stationery 33$ 

An   Over- Active   Retailer 339 

The  Scarcity  of  Lath 343 

Encouraging  to   Beginners 345 

Handy    Little    Book 347 

A  Contractor's  Dilemma 35° 

Keeping  Comfortable   354 

Prairie    Fences 356 

Low  Prices  Their  Salvation 359 

A  Lumber  Jack 363 

The  Winning  Twain 364 

The  Religion  of  Difference 366 

A  Labor  Saving  Device 367 

Yard  Man's  Opinion  of  Bull  Methods 369 

Lumber    Sheds    373 

Index 381 


PUBLISHER'S  ANNOUNCEMENT. 


One  of  the  most  valued  departments  in  the  AMERICAN  LUMBERMAN 
has  been  the  "Realm  of  the  Retailer,"'  contributed  by  Met  L.  Saley.  It  has 
been  a  department  to  which  many  readers  of  the  paper,  not  only  in  the 
retail  lumber  business  but  in  other  branches  of  the  lumber  trade,  have 
first  turned.  It  abounded  in  dry  humor  and  quaint  philosophy,  but,  more 
than  that,  was  a  compendium  of  practical  information  in  regard  to  the 
technique  of  the  retail  lumber  business.  It  gave  wide  circulation  to  the 
multitudes  of  valuable  ideas,  methods  and  devices  which,  but  for  that 
department,  would  have  remained  the  sole  property  of  those  who  invented 
or  adopted  them. 

It  seemed  worth  while,  therefore,  to  select  from  that  which  has  ap- 
peared in  this  department  during  the  last  three  years  enough  to  make 
this  book.  No  attempt  has  been  made  at  arrangement  according  to  sub- 
jects, though  an  index  at  the  back  will  be  a  clew  to  some  of  the  more 
important  ones.  The  book  embodies  the  results  of  years  of  study  of  the 
retail  trade  and  of  much  of  the  best  thought  and  experience  of  success- 
ful retailers.  It  is  both  theoretical  and  practical. 

The  first  use  of  the  department  title  ''Realm  of  the  Retailer"  was  in 
one  of  the  predecessors  of  the  AMERICAN  LUMBERMAN,  on  November  10, 
1894.  and  placed  by  the  editor  over  matter  prepared  by  Mr.  J.  Newton 
Nind,  since  which  time  is  has  continuously  appeared,  of  late  years  over 
the  signature  of  Mr.  Met  L.  Saley.  In  putting  into  this  more 
permanent  form  much  of  the  best  of  this  department  it  is  hoped 
that  a  real  service  has  been  done  to  the  retail  trade  of  the  United  States 
and  that  it  will  be  doubly  welcome,  not  only  as  a  storehouse  of  useful 
and  practical  ideas  but  for  the  homely  philosophy  and  witty  aphorisms 
with  which  it  is  enlivened. 

THE  AMERICAN  LUMBERMAN. 


H 


PREFACE. 


The  "foreword"  of  an  author  is  of  less  importance  than  the  afterword 
of  the  reader:  still,  it  has  become  a  habit  to  think  that  the  reading  public 
would  not  know  that  a  book  was  to  be  thrown  at  its  head  unless  this 
"foreword"  were  spoken.  It  serves  as  a  front  door  bell  to  announce  that 
a  book  is  waiting  to  come  in.  If  you  think  the  personality  of  the  author 
is  prominent  I  am  glad  yen  think  so.  That  was  the  aim.  It  is  as  near 
my  book  as  it  could  be  made.  It  is  a  record  of  what  I  have  seen,  thought 
and  heard.  Notwithstanding  the  quoted  opinions  cross  and  recross,  being 
born  of  the  observations  of  representative  men,  made  from  different  stand- 
points-, they  are  of  rare  value.  It  will  also  be  observed  that  my  own 
opinions  and  ideas  do  not  always  run  along  parallel  lines.  This  is  what 
happens  when  a  man  tries  to  astonish  the  world  with  big  thoughts:  One 
big  thought  will  challenge  another  and  a  pitched  battle  follows.  If  in 
this  book  there  is  not  so  much  fighting  by  these  thoughts  that  the  commo- 
tion will  disturb  at  night  the  household  in  which  it  may  be  admitted,  I 
shall  be  glad  to  know  it.  The  only  way  for  a  man  to  be  thoroughly  con- 
sistent in  the  opinions  of  all  others  is  to  say  nothing. 

Too  much  cannot  be  said  in  praise  of  the  illustrations.  It  is  necessary 
for  an  artist  to  be  versatile  and  study  a  subject  from  every  side,  else  he 
is  not  a  great  artist.  The  artists  whose  efforts  illumine  these  articles 
must  have  looked  at  me  from  every  angle,  and  found  every  angle.  On 
the  authority  of  these  artists  I  am  a  sort  of  chameleon-like  hunian  being 
who  changes  his  appearance  every  new  moon.  I  never  knew  myself  so 
well  as  I  did  after  seeing  these  pictures.  I  feel  grateful  to  the  makers 
of  them. 

These  phases  of  the  subject,  however,  amount  to  little.  Above  all,  it  is 
my  earnest  desire  that  the  result  of  what  has  been  wriften  may  be  to  ease 
the  way  of  some  man  who  is  selling  lumber. 


Realm  of  the  Retailer. 


THE  NEW  YEAR. 

I  hope  you  are  satisfied  with  your  year's  work.  In  the 
lumber  line  it  has  been  one  of  the  most  phenomenal  that 
even  the  oldest  of  us  has  ever  experienced,  and  if  you  have 
shuffled  your  cards  skillfully  you  have  made  some  money. 
The  conditions  have  been  unexpected.  No  doubt  the  proper 
thing  for  a  man  to  do  is  to  be  prepared  for  the  exceptional. 
The  usual  will  generally  take  care  of  itself. 

Having  made  money  or  not,  if  we  are  still  in  the  land 
of  the  living  we  ought  not  to  be  growling.  I  saw  a  funeral 
procession  going  to  the  cemetery  the  other  day,  and  I  would 
not  have  changed  places  with  the  body  in  the  box  for  all 
the  money  there  is  in  the  land. 

I  hope  that  during  the  year  we  have  all  paid  and  received 
our  just  dues,  treated  everybody  as  we  would  like  to  be 
treated,  and  that  we  have  grown  a  little  intellectually  and 
spiritually.  When  a  yard  man  takes  an  inventory  at  the 
end  of  the  year  he  should  not  forget  to  include  himself  in 
his  assets.  He  ought  to  size  himself  up  and  ascertain  if 
there  is  more  of  him  this  year  than  there  was  last.  If  not 
he  is  not  getting  on  swimmingly,  no  matter  if  he  has  sold 
all  the  lumber  of  the  town.  Your  lumber  yard  is  nothing 
as  compared  with  you.  You  can  pace  off  your  yard  and 
arrive  at  its  exact  size.  You  can  count  up  your  pieces  of 
boards  and  timber,  your  bunches  of  shingles  and  bundles  of 
lath,  and  know  precisely  what  they  all  amount  to,  but  there 
is  no  way  by  which  you  can  arrive  at  your  own  worth  and 
capabilities.  You  are  past  all  comprehension.  It  seems  to 

ii 


12 


RETAILER. 


me  that  if  we  knew  more  about  ourselves,  fully  understood 
that  we  are  a  spark  of  the  Divine,  we  would  try  to  make 
more  of  our  opportunities. 

I  have  seen  a  large 
number  of  yard  men  in 
the  past  twelve  months, 
have  eaten  at  the  tables 
of  some  of  them,  slept 
under  their  roofs,  ridden 
.after  their  horses,  and 
right  here  I  want  to 
thank  them  one  and  all. 
These  men  have  striven 
to  make  my  journeys 
among  them  as  pleasant 
as  possible.  And  now  let 
us  go  into  the  new  year 
— that  year  that  will  look 
so  funny  written  1902 — 
in  peace  with  ourselves 
and  the  world.  Let  us 
gird  up  our  loins,  as  Ar- 


"Will  drink  a  cocktail." 


temus  Ward  was  wont 
to  say,  and  march  on, 
striving  to  improve  a  little  on  the  year  that  is  so  fast  dis- 
appearing. At  12  o'clock  on  New  Year's  day  I  will  drink 
a  cocktail  to  the  long  life,  health  and  happiness  of  every 
one  of  you. 


QUALIFICATIONS  OF  A  GOOD  LUMBERMAN. 

I  had  been  caught  in  the  lumberman's  office  during  the 
shower,  and  following  the  downpour  the  yard  man  might 
as  well  talk,  for  it  was  not  observable  that  he  had  anything 
else  to  do.  No  customer  was  in  sight,  the  entire  community 
being  at  home  resuscitating  their  drowned  chickens,  so  I 
tipped  my  chair  against  the  wall,  the  yard  man  gracefully 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  13 

piled  his  feet  on  the  table,  and  we  touched  on  more  sub- 
jects than  you  could  shake  a  lath  at.  Of  course,  the  weather 
came  in  for  a  share  of  our  attention,  one  telling  the  other 
what  he  knew  perfectly  well  before,  namely,  that  it  had 
been  a  very  wet  season,  the  other  in  turn  remarking  that  it 
didn't  look  as  though  the  rain  was  over  yet.  Such  conver- 
sation as  that  emanates  from  a  22-caliber  man,  I  suppose; 
nevertheless,  in  this  world  of  frivolities  it  appears  to  be 
necessary.  I  once  fell  in  with  a  fellow  who  evidently  had 
decided  in  the  interest  of  a  high  order  of  intelligence  that 
when  he  opened  his  mouth  he  would  say  something.  I  never 
heard  him  remark  it  was  a  hot  day,  a  cold  day  or  anything 
similar.  And  right  between  us  I  would  rather  visit  with  a 
bump  on  a  log  any  day  than  with  him.  He  was  so  wise 
and  exact  and  towered  so  mightily  above  the  herd  that  it 
set  my  teeth  on  edge  to  listen  to  him.  I  knew  all  the  time 
that  he  was  an  affected  donkey,  but  he  thought  he  was  pass- 
ing for  a  very  superior  individual. 

If  you  set  this  yard  dealer  down  for  a  22-caliber  man, 
however,  you  would  get  left  in  the  estimate.  He  could 
indulge  in  small  talk,  but  when  the  proper  time  came  he 
could  let  fly  big  bullets. 

"I  do  not  wonder,''  he  remarked,  "that  there  are  not 
more  good  all  around  lumbermen.  There  are  unusual  duties 
which  demand  our  attention.  Do  you  use  a  typewriter? 
Yes?  Well,  then,  you  know  there  are  some  combinations 
of  characters  which  invariably  bother  you  a  little  because 
you  do  not  use  them  frequently.  To  run  them  in  on  a 
jump  is  out  of  the  question — that  is,  unless  you  are  an 
expert,  and  I  take  it  you  are  not,  for  we  are  not  experts 
except  in  about  one  line.*'  I  tipped  my  hat  to  him  and  he 
continued.  "As  it  is  with  your  writing  machine  so  it  is 
with  the  retail  lumberman.  Take  the  lien  law,  for  instance. 
The  average  dealer  does  not  have  anything  to  do 
with  the  lien  law  once  in  twelve  months,  and  when  he  does 
is  it  a  bit  surprising  that  he  can't  go  at  it  slap  bang?  He 
isn't  used  to  it.  It  is  so  in  a  dozen  things  I  could  name." 


I4  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

"What  qualifications  do  you  regard  as  prime  ones  in  a 
retail  lumberman?"  I  asked. 

"Well,  by  jingo,  I  don't  know,"  he  answered,  thought- 
fully. "It's  a  great  thing  to  be  a  good  buyer — to  know 
when  to  buy,  how  to  buy,  where  to  buy.  There  are  lum- 
bermen who  know  little  more  about  buying  than  my  boy 
there.  They  never  catch  the  spirit  of  the  market  except 
as  it  is  told  them  by  some  wily  salesman.  Then  it  is  a 
great  thing  to  be  a  good  collector,  and  perhaps  equally  as 
important  to  be  a  good  salesman,  for  a  good  salesman  can 
make  easy  collecting.  Come  to  think  of  it,  I  don't  know 
as  there  is  any  one  prime  qualification.  To  pay  more  than 
lumber  can  be  bought  for  is  not  the  thing  to  do,  but  it  is  as 
sensible  as  it  is  to  sell  to  irresponsible  people  and  have  the 
book  account  everlastingly  standing.  The  man  who  does 
one  I  think  has  no  reason  to  brag  over  the  other." 

By  this  time  the  water  was  so  far  gone  from  the  streets 
that  I  could  pick  my  way  to  the  hotel  without  wetting  my 
feet  in  my  patent  leather  pumps,  and  having  reached  the 
place  I  labored  for  half  an  hour  with  a  steak  that  I  know 
was  cut  from  some  old  cow  that  was  born  before  I  was. 


DIFFERENT  TYPES  OF  COMPETITORS. 

The  majority  of  business  men  are  constantly  in  fear 
there  may  come  in  some  competition  that  will  knock 
them  out.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  have  so  many  com- 
binations and  trusts  against  which  politicians  and  news- 
papers howl,  but  in  which  all  of  them  would  like  an  interest 
if  they  could  have  it.  It  is  perfectly  natural  for  us  to  score 
those  men  who  are  more  successful  in  business  than  we  are. 
Every  under  dog  howls  with  discomfiture,  and  every  one  of 
them  would  be  on  top  if  he  could. 

There  are  today  50,000  retail  lumbermen  in  the  country 
who  will  go  to  bed  tonight  fearful  there  may  be  new  yards 
located  in  their  towns  tomorrow.  Then  the  competition 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  15 

they  already  have  is  rarely  of  a  uature  to  suit  them.  There 
are  yard  men  doing  business  alongside  of  individual  yards 
who  wish  that  those  yards  would  pass  into  the  hands  of  line 
men,  and  there  are  others  who  have  line  yard  competitors 
and  wish  they  would  sell  out  to  individuals.  You  couldn't 
in  a  hundred  years  find  the  man  who  -is  entirely  satisfied 
with  the  trade  conditions  surrounding  him  and  it  is  a  glori- 
ous thing  it  is  so,  for  with  satisfaction  there  would  be  no 
effort  and  consequently  no  advancement.  It  is  this  desire 
to  better  ourselves  that  puts  the  spikes  in  our  shoes  which 
enable  us  to  keep  our  footing  on  life's  slippery  paths  without 
falling. 

Undoubtedly  the  best  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to  make  the 
best  of  the  competition  we  have  and  not  worry  our  heads  off 
over  it.  We  don't  like  it  of  course — we  don't  like  to  have 
the  poacher  watching  every  corner  to  get  in  his  wedge.  If 
we  are  poor  we  are  not  in  love  with  the  rich  dealer  who  if  he 
takes  a  notion  can  sell  lumber  at  cost  or  below  with  the 
effect,  as  we  think,  of  cutting  our  throats  and  not  materially 
injuring  him.  If  we  are  rich  we  stand  in  fear  of  the 
poor  dealer  who  has  nothing  to  lose  but  who  can  keep  us  in 
hot  water.  And  above  all  have  we  reason  to  dislike  the 
competitor  who  will  not  affiliate ;  who  will  not  even  use  good 
horse  sense,  who  wants  the  whole  earth  and  goes  on  bull- 
headed  to  the  end,  permitting  no  one  else  to  make  money 
and  making  none  himself.  That  is  the  kind  of  competitor 
that  the  sooner  he  gets  out  the  sooner  the  trade  of  the  town 
will  assume  normal  proportions. 

A  pioneer  yard  man  told  me  he  had  settled  down  to  the 
conclusion  to  make  the  best  of  the  competition  that  he  had, 
as  he  had  never  succeeded  in  working  a  change  that  was  an 
improvement.  Another  dealer  told  a  story  along  this  line, 
the  incident  he  related  being  so  far  back  that  the  wound  had 
entirely  healed.  "I  had  a  competitor  who  was  meaner  than 
a  hog,"  he  said.  "I  sold  my  share  of  lumber,  but  my  dis- 
like for  the  blank  fool  was  so  intense  that  I  would  like  to 
have  kicked  him  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  was  no  re- 


i6 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


specter  of  his  word,  or  of  anything  else  so  far  as  I  ever 
learned.  It  was  a  two-yard  town;  I  knew  that  one  yard 
would  never  be  permitted  to  monopolize  the  business,  else  I 
would  have  bought  him  out.  I  ought  to  have  bought  him 
out  and  run  a  blind,  but  I  wasn't  up  to  things  in  those  days. 
So  I  kept  my  eye  out  for  somebody  to  buy  the  villain  out. 
One  spring  day  there  came  along  a  quiet  young  fellow  who 
suggested  that  he  might  go  into  the  lumber  trade  if  he  found 
an  opening  to  suit  him.  I  tried  to  impress  on  his  mind  that 
there  was  no  better  opening  than  right  in  that  town.  I  told 
him  how  many  carloads  the  two  yards  sold  and  gave 


"Tried  to  impress  on  his  mind." 

him  other  pointers  that  I  would  be  very  shy  about  giving 
anyone  these  days.  Would  I  sell  out?  Well,  hardly,  but 
he  might  try  the  other  fellow.  He  wandered  over  to  the 
other  fellow's  yard,  and  the  first  I  heard  around  town  was 
that  he  had  bought  it.  I  jumped  up  and  cracked  my  heels 
together.  Finally  the  scamp  was  going!  The  young  chap 
came  on  and  his  first  move  was  to  put  in  a  delivery  wagon. 
Of  course  I  had  to  follow.  Then  he  put  in  improvements 
around  his  premises  and  I,  feeling  greener  than  a  fool, 
trailed  along  after  him.  I  have  noticed  since  that  it  is  the 
original  fellow  that  generally  gets  there,  and  in  a  short 
time  I  discovered  that  was  just  what  he  was  doing.  Always 
gentlemanly,  always  honorable,  but  he  was  a  taking  chap. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  17 

To  tell  the  truth  he  outclassed  me,  and  before  the  end  of  two 
years  I  wished  that  the  old  liar  and  hypocrite  that  I  had 
been  the  means  of  getting  out  of  town  was  back  again. 
Three  years  from  the  time  my  new  competitor  started  in  he 
died,  and  I  tell  you  there  was  put  under  the  ground  a 
decent  man." 

This  was  kind  of  a  solemn  ending  of  the  recital,  so  I 
threw  my  overcoat  over  my  shoulder  and  went  up  the  street 
to  the  hotel  to  see  what  I  could  find  good  to  eat. 


THE  ART  OF  LOOKING  AT  THINGS. 

We  have  all  noticed  that  at  times  we  go  as  though  the 
rails  of  life  were  oiled  especially  for  us;  good  health,  pros- 
perous business,  sunshine  and  refreshing  dews  all  come  our 
way,  but  of  a  sudden  the  wind  will  go  out  of  our  sails  and 
sickness,  financial  loss  and  other  unfavorable  conditions  will 
follow.  In  plain  language,  things  seem  to  be  going  to  the 
dogs.  I  have  noticed  that  for  days  at  a  stretch  I  have 
seen  yard  man  after  yard  man.  and  while  they  would  be 
courteous,  friendly  and  all  that,  they  wouldn't  talk  right 
from  the  bottom  of  the  business.  When  following  the 
storm  the  yard  man  opened  up  as  he  did  I  said,  "Now  we 
have  reached  another  period  of  talk ;"  and  sure  enough  the 
very  next  man  I  saw  went  on  to  philosophize  like  a  second 
Plato. 

"I  have  read,"  he  observed,  "what  you  have  said  about 
some  dealers  being  unable  to  find  suitable  yards  to  buy. 
They  never  will  find  them  by  sitting  down  at  home.  If  I 
should  want  to  buy  a  yard  I  should  expect  to  find  one,  but 
not  without  looking  it  up.  It  is  here  as  it  is  up  in  the  Klon- 
dike— if  a  fellow  finds  a  rich  strike  he  must  hunt  for  it. 
There  is'  no  telling  how  much  we  may  find  in  this  world  if 
we  will  only  hunt  for  it. 

'There  are  plenty  of  dealers  who  never  seem  to  look  for 
bargains  when  they  are  buying.  There  are  housewives 


i8 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


who  never  know  they  want  sugar  or  tea  until  the  last 
spoonful  is  gone,  and  that  is  the  way  with  some  retail  deal- 
ers regarding  stock.  They  do  not  think  of  ordering  an 
item  until  they  are  out  of  it,  and  then  they  want  it  quick, 
and  consequently  have  no  time  to  look  around  to  buy  to 
advantage.  When  a  man  sees  he  is  running  low  on  a  cer- 
tain grade  of  stuff  he  ought  to  begin  to  beat  around  and 
see  where  he  can  pick  it  up  at  prices  which  are  right.  The 


"As  it  is  up  in  the  Klondike." 

time  to  buy  lumber  is  when  the  buyer  is  not  in  a  hurry,  but 
when  the  seller  is.  That  is.  when  you  get  your  dollar's 
worth.  I  don't  care  how  stiff  prices  are,  give  me  time  to 
hunt  a  little  and  if  I  don't  buy  so  as  to  make  6  percent  on 
my  money,  figuring  on  the  basis  of  the  list,  I  don't  count 
myself  in  it. 

"Suppose  I  am  running  a  yard  here  and  you  are  running 
one  down  on  the  other  track.  I  pay  the  list  price ;  you 
shave  those  prices  to  an  extent  that  the  reduction  amounts 
to  6  percent  on  your  money.  As  compared  with  me  you 
have  already  made  6  percent,  and  why  shouldn't  you  feel 
easy?  You  really  have  made  a  fair  investment,  and  then 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  19 

right  on  top  of  that  you  will  begin  to  rake  in  your  profits  on 
sales.  I  have  made  no  investment  that  is  paying  me,  and 
in  order  to  make  a  cent  I  must  begin  to  turn  my  lumber 
over.  Or,  look  at  it  in  another  way :  You  have  already 
made  a  profit  of  6  percent  over  me.  We  are  selling  at,  say, 
a  profit  of  10  percent.  Every  time  I  sell  I  make  10  percent ; 
every  time  you  make  a  sale  you  clear  up  a  16  percent.  Do 
you  see  that  if  it  should  come  to  a  rub  you  could  knock  me 
galley  west?  Other  things  being  equal,  the  leverage  you 
had  on  me  would  lift  me  out  of  your  way. 

"I  never  could  get  along  without  hunting  for  customers. 
I  want  to  be  on  the  lookout  for  them  at  every  turn.  They 
must  be  baited  and  rebaited.  Have  you  ever  tried  to  trap 
a  rat  when  you  haye  given  up  hopes  almost  that  you  would 
get  him  ?  Night  after  night  he  would  sniff  around  the  bait 
and  never  touch  it ;  then  unexpectedly  you  would  hear  a 
squeal  and  you  would  know  you  had  him.  In  an  effort  to 
draw  customers  we  should  not  let  up  a  minute,  and  if  the 
bait  is  made  seductive  enough  we  will  get  them  sure.  You 
can't  help  getting  them.  I  am  a  kind  of  an  affinity  feller. 
Under  certain  conditions  people  must  buy  lumber  of  you,  of 
me,  of  somebody  who  is  operating  a  yard.  It  becomes  a 
matter  of  gravity.  The  next  consideration  is,  do  we  know 
enough,  and  will  we  be  to  the  trouble,  to  make  the  condi- 
tions ? 

"What  are  the  conditions?  Well,  there  is  a  lot  of  'em. 
Good  buying,  location,  prices,  good  nature,  figure  in  the  con- 
ditions. For  a  year  and  a  half  I  passed  a  grocer's  door.  I 
had  never  bought  a  cent's  worth  of  the  man  and  never 
expected  to.  But  when  he  was  out  in  front  of  his  place 
and  saw  me  pass  he  always  knew  me.  He  didn't  seem  to 
say,  'Pay  me  your  money,  and  I'll  be  your  friend ;  but  we 
will  be  friends,  anyway.'  Up  town  where  I  left  my  order 
the  grocer  would  nod  good  morning,  mechanically  jerk  out 
his  pencil  and  write  down  the  items.  One  day  the  thought 
came  to  me,  'That  man  seems  to  take  it  as  a  matter  of 
course  that  I  should  drive  up  to  his  place  every  morning  and 


20  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

leave  my  order.'  Now,  if  there  is  anything  I  don't  like  it 
is  this  matter-of-course  business.  Every  tradesman  should 
be  grateful  for  the  patronage  he  receives,  and  he  should  let 
it  be  known,  too.  Unless  we  make  it  an  object  for  it  to  do 
so  the  community  is  under  no  more  obligations  to  buy  lumber 
of  us  than  water  is  to  run  up  hill.  I  wish  every  young  man 
who  went  into  business  would  get  it  into  his  head  that  if 
he  gets  trade  he  must  win  it,  and  be  worthy  of  it,  too.  The 
good  natured  fellow  who  sold  potatoes  and  pickles  won  me 
over,  and  I  have  been  trading  with  him  for  two  years.  And 
I  feel  confident  that  should  I  go  elsewhere  to  buy  my  stuff 
this  man  would  appear  just  as  friendly  as  he  does  today. 
The  community  likes  such  a  man.  When  a  fellow  shows 
that  he  is  for  nothing  but  self  nobody  cares  for  him.  I  tell 
you  in  front  we  ought  to  put  on:  When  we  see  a  man 
driving  past  our  place  with  a  load  of  lumber  salute  and 
treat  him  just  as  friendly  as  though  the  lumber  came  out  of 
our  own  yards.  Believe  me,  he  will  remember  it.  It  is  a 
cheap  way  of  sowing  a  seed  that  may  bear  many  fold." 

I  guess  the  dealer  thought  he  had  pumped  all  the  lumber 
lore  into  me  that  I  could  hold  at  one  time,  for  suddenly  look- 
ing at  his  watch  he  said  there  was  a  ball  game  in  town  that 
afternoon,  and  if  it  would  suit  me  we  would  "go  out  and 
see  'em  muff  'em." 

Didn't  this  dealer  get  off  some  good  ideas?  Don't  you 
think  that  if  every  yard  man  should  paste  in  his  hat  the  little 
remark,  "The  time  to  buy  lumber  is  when  the  buyer  is  not 
in  a  hurry,  but  when  the  seller  is,"  and  act  on  it,  it  would, 
make  him  enough  money  to  build  a  mansion?  What  do 
you  think  about  the  affinity  idea  ?  Do  you  think  that  if  we 
only  made  the  conditions  right  trade  would  come  to  us  as  a 
matter  of  gravity?  You  will  readily  see  those  are  not 
thoughts  which  chumps  think,  no  matter  whether  they  dove- 
tail with  our  ideas  or  not. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  21 

EXCUSES  FOR  SCRAPPING. 

There  is  a  lot  of  fighting  these  days.  Several  towns  could 
be  named  where  competition  in  trade  is  as  hot  as  the 
weather.  I  never  like  to  see  this  condition,  but  if  it  must  be 
I  do  enjoy  listening  to  what  the  contestants  have  to  say 
about  it. 

One  yard  man  said:  "I  started  in  here  to  do  a  fair  and 
square  business.  It  was  not  my  intention  to  cut  prices, 
and  I  made  no  demand  for  any  portion  of  the  trade.  The 
trade  I  could  get  on  legitimate  grounds  I  thought  I  would 
be  entitled  to,  and  with  that  trade  I  should  be  satisfied,  but 
So-and-So  at  once  dropped  the  price  of  several  items  to  the 
cost  mark,  to  crowd  me  out.  I  had  to  follow  suit,  and  here 
we  are.  You  know  a  hog  won't  drive  worth  a  continental. 
Maybe  you  can  go  along  ahead  of  him  and  coax  him  with 
an  ear  of  corn,  but  you  can't  drive  him.  I  don't  know  that 
it  would  suit  me  for  anybody  else  to  call  me  a  hog ;  but  that 
is  the  position.  I  do  not  expect  to  stay  a  thousand  years, 
but  put  it  down  that,  the  Lord  willing,  I  will  be  here  a 
long  time  after  the  other  fellow  has  got  tired." 

The  "other  fellow"  was  seen,  and  he  took  it  as  a  matter 
of  course  that  he  should  do  his  best  to  lift  his  competitor 
out.  "There  was  no  place  here  for  another  yard,"  was  his 
excuse. 

Who  showed  the  Christian  spirit  in  the  matter?  If  the 
new  man  had  a  mind  to  put  a  new  yard  in  that  town  whose 
business  was  it  except  his  own?  The  idea  entertained  by 
so  many  yard  men  that  they  are  exclusive  owners  of  the 
trade  of  any  territory  is  erroneous,  from  the  fact  that  so 
many  of  them  wake  up  some  fine  morning  to  find  out  they 
do  not  own  it.  The  business  man  may  as  well  make  up  his 
mind  to  meet  competition,  for  he  will  be  obliged  to  meet  it.. 
The  dropping  of  prices  to  cost  by  the  man  who  has  been 
longest  on  the  ground  was  an  act  of  shortsightedness.  The 
better  way  would  have  been  to  meet  the  new  comer  as  one 
man  should  meet  another,  discuss  the  situation  and,  having 


22  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

discussed  it,  make  the  best  of  it.  Not  infrequently  the 
other  fellow  is  as  reasonable  as  we  are. 

Another  yard  man  was  telling  me  how  he  would  conduct 
the  campaign.  ''I  am  going  to  sell  as  little  lumber  as  possi- 
ble," said  he.  "I  will  let  the  others  sell  it.  I  will  bid  on 
bills  to  a  point  where  I  can  save  myself,  and  then  quit." 

Maybe  this  will  work  and  maybe  it  won't.  It  recalled 
to  mind  the  comments  on  the  same  subject  by  a  veteran  in 
the  retail  trade  who,  by  the  way,  has  stayed  out  several 
scraps.  "If  it  is  a  fight  it  must  be  a  fight,"  he  remarked. 
"The  public  knows  pretty  well  whether  a  man  is  putting  up 
a  good  stiff  fight  or  sneaking  around  the  corners.  I  would 
never  think  of  going  into  a  fight  unless  I  could  sell  at  least 
as  many  bills  as  my  competitor  did.  If  I  let  the  bills  go  by 
me  the  people  will  begin  to  say,  'He  can't  figure  on  lumber ; 
the  other  fellows  beat  him  every  time ;'  and  by  and  by  when 
they  want  lumber  they  will  go  to  the  other  dealers,  expect- 
ing to  get  it  cheaper  of  them  than  they  could  of  me.  No, 
sir!  I  wouldn't  fight  unless  I  expected  to  sell  the  stuff." 

If  you  have  a  fight  in  prospect,  so  far  as  these  opinions 
are  concerned  you  can  pay  your  money  and  take  your 
choice.  The  best  way,  however,  is  not  to  fight  if  you  can 
help  it.  If  you  do  scrap  with  much  earnestness  I  will  bet 
you  a  hat  that  sooner  or  later  you  will  regret  it.  If  you 
get  the  worst  of  it  you  will  surely  regret  it. 


AN  ADVERTISING  SUGGESTION. 

It  ought  to  require  no  argument  these  days  to  show  that 
the  business  man  who  does  not  advertise  is  not  making  the 
most  of  his  opportunities,  yet  there  are  thousands  of  men 
selling  goods  of  every  kind  who  have  no  idea  what  a  trade- 
getter  the  right  kind  of  advertising  is,  At  the  same  time  a 
man  can  slip  up  on  advertising  as  easily  as  he  can  on  glare 
ice.  Three  months  ago  I  saw  the  ad  of  a  yard  man  in  a 
local  paper,  and  last  week  I  saw  that  same  ad  again — the 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  23 

same  old  thing,  word  for  word.  The  yard  man  paid  for  the 
space  in  the  paper  hoping,  of  course,  that  it  would  do  him 
good.  He  naturally  expected  to  be  benefited  by  it,  but  he 
probably  was  not  to  any  great  extent.  The  world  is  full 
of  people  who  will  not  read  the  same  ad  the  second  time 
any  more  than  they  will  read  the  same  piece  of  news  twice. 
You  know  you  won't ;  I  know  I  won't,  and  we  must  judge 
others  by  ourselves.  Then  when  we  consider  that  month  after 
month  the  same  readers  peruse  the  local  paper  we  can  under- 
stand how  senseless  it  is  to  lay  before  them  an  unattractive 
ad  that  typographically  or  otherwise  is  not  changed  the  year 


"It  interests  the  household." 

round.  Instead  of  keeping  a  standing  ad  for  three  months 
this  lumberman  ought  every  week  to  be  firing  a  new  kind  of 
shot  into  the  farmers  and  carpenters.  He  ought  to  be  work- 
ing his  thinker'  a  good  many  minutes  every  day  concocting 
the  best  possible  things  to  say  to  the  lumber-buying  public. 
If  necessary  he  should  get  right  down  on  his  haunches  to 
do  this  thinking;  he  should  be  willing  to  work  as  hard  at 
it  as  he  would  unloading  a  car  of  lumber. 

When  you  buy  space  in  a  newspaper  you  have  simply 
the  foundation.    On  that  foundation  you  can  raise  a  beauti- 


24  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

ful  structure  composed  of  fancy  and  facts — a  structure  that 
the  reader  will  stop  to  look  at,  as  the  traveler  will  stop  to 
look  at  a  large,  unique  or  beautiful  building  by  the  way- 
side. 

I  have  spoken  before  about  getting  the  addresses  of 
the  farmers  in  the  territory  that  you  might  hope  to  reach, 
and  mailing  them  lumber  literature.  It  is  a  good  idea.  The 
very  mail  feature  of  it  is  of  value.  There  are  farmers  who 
are  not  heavy  patrons  of  the  postoffice.  They  may,  or  may 
not,  take  a  local  paper.  When  they  come  home  from  town 
and  pull  a  piece  of  mail  from  their  pocket  it  is  a  sort  of 
innovation.  It  interests  the  household.  The  old  lady  wants 
to  read  every  word  there  is  in  it.  The  farmer,  himself,  feels 
a  little  elated  that  he  should  have  something  fired  right  at 
him  direct.  Then,  do  not  have  the  subject  matter  in  these 
circulars  too  meager.  The  mere  announcement  that  you 
sell  lumber  is  not  enough.  Talk  to  the  farmer.  Chat  with 
him  on  paper  just  as  you  would  were  you  sitting  on  his 
doorstep.  Make  him  feel  proud  that  he  is  a  farmer.  Make 
the  circular  a  sort  of  magnet  that  will  draw  him  to  your 
office  whether  he  wants  any  lumber  or  not. 

Do  you  know  there  is  a  good  point  to  that — this  draw- 
ing people  to  you  ?  A  yard  man  recently  said  to  me  he 
could  not  understand  how  a  man  could  make  a  big  success 
of  the  lumber  business  unless  he  knew  a  good  deal  more 
than  lumber.  This  man  keeps  posted  on  the  markets.  The 
farmer  who  drops  in  to  see  him  can  get  the  freshest  news 
concerning  the  cattle,  hog  and  corn  markets.  He  makes 
himself  useful  to  the  farmer — that  is  the  idea.  You  know 
how  we  run  after  a  man  when  we  think  he  can  be  of  service 
to  us.  This  yard  man  also  tells  me  that  he  never  rides  to 
solicit  trade,  and  rarely  outside  of  his  office  approaches  a 
man  on  the  subject  of  buying  lumber.  The  farmers  come  to 
him,  and  in  this  way  he  learns  what  they  are  intending  to  do 
and  what  their  neighbors  are  expecting  to  do. 

To  return  to  the  mail  business :  Maybe  I  can  give  you 
a  pointer  that  will  be  worth  a  cent  to  you.  A  yard  man 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  25 

who  has  brains  to  burn  told  me  that  he  sent  a  man  out  to 
canvass  his  territory — his  own  county  and  those  adjoining 
it — for  the  correct  names  and  postoffice  addresses  of  the 
farmers.  It  would  take  some  money,  you  know,  to  do  that. 
It  would  involve  the  services  of  a  man  and  a  horse  for  sev- 
eral days,  and  I  do  not  suppose  that  nine  in  ten  of  the  retail 
dealers  of  the  country  would  any  more  think  of  doing  it  than 
they  would  think  of  slapping  say  a  hundred  dollar  bill  into 
the  missionary  contribution  box.  But  note  the  outcome 
of  it.  Having  used  the  list  for  his  trade  benefit  he  sold  it  to 
eastern  houses  which  do  a  mail  business  to  such  advantage 
that  he  made  $100  over  and  above  all  expenses.  Now  and 
then  the  farmer  receives  circulars  from  houses  in  Maine, 
New  York,  Boston  and  elsewhere,  calling  his  attention  to 
everything  from  a  worthless  gimcrack  to  a  piano  or  wagon, 
and  he  pulls  a  hayseed  from  his  whiskers  and  wonders  how 
those  fellows  knew  anything  about  him.  They  get  his  name 
from  these  lists  they  buy,  and  this  yard  man  was  "onto  it." 
The  way  that  a  brainy  man  will  work  things  surpasseth  the 
understanding  of  the  man  whose  head  is  filled  with  saw- 
dust. 


KNOWING  WHAT  LUMBER  IS  WANTED  FOR. 

Although  the  day  was  as  hot  as  a  pepper  pod  I  stripped 
off  my  coat  and  helped  to  shove  on  a  jag  of  lumber.  I  fre- 
quently do  this,  so  that  when  I  am  out  among  the  wholesale 
men  and  am  asked  if  I  am  a  practical  lumberman  that  1 
should  be  talking  about  the  retail  lumber  business  all  the 
time,  and  advising  the  yard  men  how  to  run  their  yards, 
I  can  tell  them  I  work  at  it  right  along.  Only  yesterday 
I  was  in  a  yard  and  threw  on  a  bundle  of  lath;  the  day 
before  I  loaded  a  post  or  two,  and  in  that  way  I  keep  my 
hand  in  and  make  myself  useful  to  the  men  whose  yards 
I  visit. 

A  carpenter  was  after  that  stuff  I  was  helping  to  load 
and  we  had  a  great  time  fitting  him  out  with  what  he 


26  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

wanted.  We  pulled  out  this  board  and  that  one,  but  it  did 
not  just  suit  him.  Then  it  occurred  to  the  yard  man  to 
ask  him  what  he  wanted  those  few  particular  boards  for, 
and  he  said  for  stairs.  It  was  then  easy  sailing.  The  car- 
penter, who  might  have  known  more  about  lumber  than  he 
did,  was  calling  for  D  select,  and  I  think  we  handled  over 
nearly  all  the  lumber  of  that  grade  in  the  yard  trying  to 
please  him.  Once  known  what  the  lumber  was  for,  the 
yard  man  went  to  his  pile  of  C  select,  and  the  carpenter 
really  seemed  pleased  that  he  was  helped  out. 

This  was  no  staggering  event  of  itself,  yet  it  illustrates 
the  fact  that  for  the  interest  of  everybody  concerned  it  is 
best  for  the  yard  man  to  know  to  what  use  the  lumber  called 
for  is  to  be  put.  It  saves  time,  often  pleases  the  customer, 
and  not  infrequently  makes  a  little  money.  It  does  not 
take  long  to  ask  the  question.  For  myself,  I  have  great 
faith  in  the  judgment  of  the  average  yard  man  when  it 
comes  to  a  knowledge  of  the  kind  of  board  that  will  prop- 
erly fit  a  certain  place.  So  far  as  the  eternal  fitness  of 
things  is  concerned  the  carpenter  isn't  in  it  with  him.  The 
carpenter  has  one  or  two  jobs  in  the  season ;  the  yard  man 
is  coming  in  contact  with  builders  all  the  time,  and  generally 
knows  the  grade  of  lumber  used  by  them  for  specific  pur- 
poses. The  yard  man  lacks  only  the  mechanical  training 
to  make  a  successful  builder. 

After  we  had  got  the  jag  of  lumber  off  we  went  down 
the  street  to  a  restaurant,  filled  up  on  pop,  came  back,  stuck 
some  excellent  cigars  between  our  teeth  and,  leaning  back 
with  our  feet  on  the  window  sill,  entered  into  that  sweet, 
independent  repose  which  comes — and  I  may  say  comes 
only — to  the  man  who  labors. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  27 

SHED  DEFECTS. 

This  shed  question  will  never  down  in  the  lumber  world. 
It  is  as  live  as  a  hornet.  Yard  men  talk  about  sheds  wher- 
ever I  go.  No  doubt  two-thirds  of  the  retail  lumbermen  of 
these  great  prairie  states  have  shed  on  the  brain.  They 
want  to  know  the  right  kind  to  build,  and  many  a  man  who 
already  has  a  shed  wishes  the  blamed  thing  was  in  tophet, 
so  that  the  next  time  he  could  do  better.  ''You  seem  to  be 
a  man  of  positive  opinions,"  a  retail  dealer  wrote  me  a  few 
weeks  ago.  That  is  so,  probably.  My  best  girl  says  that 
once  my  mind  is  set  I  am  hard  headed ;  and  she  knows  me. 
I  am  not  hard  headed  on  the  shed  question,  however,  for  I 
couldn't  picture  the  ideal  shed  if  I  should  try.  I  have  seen 
hundreds  of  them,  but  my  mind  isn't  made  up  yet.  I  have 
traveled  thousands  of  miles  to  see  sheds. 

You  know  yourself  how  it  is  in  the  girl  line ;  a  fellow 
will  tell  you  that  some  particular  girl  is  pretty — he  will  un- 
doubtedly say  she  is  a  peach.  When  you  get  the  chance  you 
look  her  over.  You  may  detect  that  she  has  bad  teeth ;  that 
she  followed  the  heathenish  custom  of  punching  holes  in 
her  ears  so  that  gold  washed  trinkets  may  dangle  from  them ; 
that  she  has  been  so  fond  of  the  hugging  act  that  she  has 
worn  corsets  which  have  brought  her  waist  down  to  the  size 
of  an  angleworm ;  and  you  say,  "No,  those  things  do  not  go 
with  beauty." 

It  is  something  like  that  with  sheds.  There  is  generally 
some  defect.  I  have  seen  comparatively  few  sheds  the  own- 
ers of  which  did  not  declare  they  would  change  in  some 
respects  if  they  could.  Within  a  week  four  of  these  com- 
plaints have  been  registered.  One  dealer  said  they  might 
talk  about  high  sheds  all  they  wanted  to,  but  he  did  not 
want  another.  He  wanted  his  work  down  to  earth.  "That 
upper  story  is  a  bugbear  to  me,"  said  he.  "The  idea  of 
shoving  lumber  up  and  up  and  up !" 

Another  yard  man  has  a  flat  roof  on  his  shed,  and  he 
swore — actually  swore — that  he  would  never  have  another. 


28 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


"Take  such  weather  as  we  have  had  this  season  and  you 
might  as  well  be  under  a  sun  glass,"  was  the  way  he  put  it. 
Still  another  who  had  built  the  bents  sixteen  and  twenty 
feet  wide  was  wondering  what  kind  of  a  "jackass"  he  was 
when  he  was  doing  it.  Mind  you,  I  do  not  call  him  that 
long  eared  animal;  he  applied  the  name  himself.  "The 
next  time  I  would  make  them  seventeen  and  twenty-one,  so 
that  16  and  2O-foot  stuff  could  be  accommodated  without  a 
/  foot  of  it  protruding 

into  the  alley  as  it 
does  now."  he  ex- 
plained. 

In  another  shed 
the  owner  lifted  up 
some  boards  which 
were  damp  and 
stained.  "We  have 
"^np7  been  obliged  to  take 
lumber  out  of  here  to 
keep  it  from  spoil- 
ing," he  said. 

The  yard  men 
who  protest  openly  in 
this  way  are  frank  in- 
dividuals. There  are 
others  not  so  frank 
who  grin  and  bear 

it.  The  world  is  not  full  of  people  who  would  have  us 
infer  that  they  never  make  a  mistake,  but  there  are  many 
of  them.  Your  eyes,  however,  settle  the  question.  You 
see  at  a  glance,  as  the  poet  said,  that  "someone  has  blun- 
dered.'' "How  do  you  get  those  timbers  in  there?"  I  asked 
a  yard  man  who  was  showing  me  his  place. 

"By  main  strength  and  awkwardness,  blank  it !"  was  the 
reply. 

"And  how  would  you  reined}'  it?" 'was  asked. 

"Easy  enough.     Any  man  who  builds  a  shed  minus  out- 


"Kiss  my  family  good  bye." 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  29 

side  doors  through  which  to  shove  stuff  has  not  learned  the 
a  b  c  of  the  shed  religion." 

One  point  in  proper  shed  building  is  such  an  arrange- 
ment that  the  material  housed  in  it  can  be  handled  with  the 
greatest  possible  ease.  In  fewer  words,  the  shed  should  be 
convenient.  As  the  lawyers  say,  that  may  seem  to  you  like 
a  self-evident  fact,  but  it  will  bear  saying.  In  a  large  shed  a 
prospective  customer  wanted  to  see  a  certain  grade  of  lum- 
ber, and  telling  him  to  "come  on"  the  yard  man  led  the  way 
up  toward  the  loft.  He  climbed  to  the  platform  and  then 
up  another  ladder  he  went.  ''Are  you  going  up  to  heaven?" 
the  customer  asked.  I  gently  put  the  question  to  the  dealer, 
how  he  liked  such  climbing,  and  he  shook  his  head  and, 
switching  a  handkerchief  from  his  hip  pocket,  wiped  the 
perspiration  from  his  forehead.  He  didn't  act  as  though  it 
was  any  fun  to  show  lumber  under  such  circumstances.  He 
did  not  say  that  a  man  to  run  such  a  place  should  be  half 
man  and  half  squirrel,  but  he  looked  it.  I  have  reached  the 
point  that  my  faith  is  not  much  larger  than  a  mustard  seed 
in  the  shed  that  looms  up  like  the  Washington  monument. 
I  have  heard  yard  men  who  have  this  kind  of  shed  deplore 
the  fact  that  their  lumber  could  not  be  elevated  by  other 
than  man  power.  If  they  could  have  water,  electric  or  horse 
power  they  would  be  happier. 

Then  there  is  another  great  desideratum,  and  that  is 
ventilation.  Many  a  shed  is  deficient  in  this.  Within  a 
month  I  saw  a  shed  that  when  the  doors  were  closed  had  no 
more  ventilation  than  a  barn.  "We  depend  on  the  doors  in 
each  end,"  the  yard  man  said. 

"Do  you  keep  the  doors  open  all  winter?"  was  asked.  I 
was  conscious  that  the  question  partook  of  the  caustic,  but 
the  fellow  was  not  very  social,  and  I  didn't  much  care  what 
I  did  say  to  him.  WThen  a  man  has  not  at  least  a  pint  of  the 
milk  of  human  kindness  in  him  I  would  as  soon  as  not  put  a 
little  blister  plaster  on  him. 

You  know  we  Americans  who  so  delight  to  go  head  on 
are  great  on  the  abstract.  I  don't  say  we  don't 


3o  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

think,  but  we  don't  think  enough.  "A  shed!  a 
shed !"  is  the  cry  of  a  thousand  and  one  yard 
men,  but  they  are  considering  the  shed  only  in  the  ab- 
stract. To  those  details  which  should  make  a  lumber  shed 
worthy  of  the  name  they  give  little  thought.  Their  object 
is  reached  when  they  have  a  roofed  structure.  Be  not  de- 
ceived, beloved,  in  this  regard.  You  may  have  some  plan 
that  looks  nice  on  paper,  but  ten  to  one  the  worm  that  causes 
the  canker  is  lurking  in  it.  Knowing  as  little  about  sheds 
as  I  do,  if  I  were  you  and  intending  to  build  a  shed  that 
was  to  cost  from  $1,000  up  to  four  times  that  amount,  I 
would  pack  my  grip,  bone  the  railroad  over  which  I  shipped 
for  a  pass,  kiss  my  family  good-bye,  start  out  and  see  every 
shed  I  could.  I  was  talking  with  a  professor  of  music  last 
night  who  is  in  quest  of  a  good  violin  and  who  has  received 
an  instrument  on  trial  from  a  New  York  music  house.  "I 
told  them,"  he  said,  "that  I  must  keep  the  instrument  at 
least  a  month  before  I  would  decide  whether  I  want  it.  If 
purchased  hastily  I  might  tire  of  it ;  and  it  is  easier  to  buy  a 
violin  than  it  is  to  sell  it." 

There  is  a  heap  of  common  sense  in  that,  remark.  It 
is  awfully  easy  to  buy  a  thing  if  we  have  the  money.  It  is 
easy  building  a  shed  if  we  have  the  money,  but  it  is  prob- 
ably something  that  will  stay  by  us  for  years,  and  we  want 
it  built  about  right. 

The  anti-shed  men  grasp  every  objection  to  a  shed  that 
comes  to  the  surface  and  exclaim:  "Didn't  I  tell  you  so?" 
There  are  doubtless  those  among  them  who  will  frame  the 
objections  cited  above  and  hang  them  up  in  their  offices. 
There  is  one  of  these  men  in  Wisconsin  who,  I  believe,  dis- 
likes me  for  the  reason  that  I  have  now  and  then  held  that 
the  closed  shed  is  the  proper  thing.  That  is,  he  dislikes  me 
in  that  spot.  Otherwise  we  get  along  capitally.  He  sets  up 
the  cigars  and  things,  takes  me  around  town  behind  his  fast 
pacer  and  has  asked  me  a  half  dozen  times  to  come  and  see 
him  since  I  was  there  the  last  time.  At  that  time  he  re- 
quested me  to  take  off  my  hat  in  his  office,  and  when  I  had 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


politely  done  so  he  said  it  was  a  mystery  to  him  how  any 
man  whose  brow  was  so  high  as  mine  and  whose  ears  were 
as  small  could,  from  a  business  standpoint,  advocate  the 
putting  of  say  $2,500  in  a  lumber  shed  when  the  most  of 
that  expense  could  be  avoided  and  the  lumber  just  as  well, 
if  not  better,  cared  for.  If  everything  hinged  on  the  cost 
I  asked  him  why  he  didn't  wear  a  hickory  shirt  that  would 
cost  50  cents  instead  of  the  white  one  made  to  order  with  the 
big  diamond  blazing  from  the  front  of  it.  And  there  the 
matter  dropped. 

So  much  depends  on 
taste.  Some  of  the  promi- 
nent firms  in  the  big  cities 
erect  palatial  business  places 
when  no  doubt  they  could 
have  got  along  if  they  had 
continued  in  more  modest 
quarters.  There  are  men, 
however,  who  are  proud  of 
their  business,  proud  of 
the  success  they  have  made 
of  it,  and  they  want  other 
folks  to  know  it.  I  could 
almost  see  the  bosom  of  a 
yard  man  swell  with  pride 
who  was  recently  showing  «A  big  diamond  blazing  from  it." 
me  his  shed.  Down  the 

street  were  his  neighbors,  who  were  selling  merchandise  in 
good  buildings,  and  he  too,  was  selling  lumber  in  a  good 
one.  He  wanted  to  size  up  creditably  with  his  fellow- 
citizens.  That  is  an  ambition  that  some  men  have,  you 
know,  and  there  is  nothing  wrong  in  it,  either,  that  I  see. 

All  that  sounds  well  enough,  but  the  rights  and  priv- 
ileges of  those  business  men  who  regard  the  matter  in  the 
light  of  what  they  call  extravagant  surroundings  must  be 
respected  and  protected.  Not  long  ago  an  open-shed  advo- 
cate was  explaining  to  me  how  he  could  build  a  shed  that  in 


32  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

his  opinion  would  answer  every  purpose  for  $i  a  lineal  foot. 
That  was  without  the  battens  for  the  roof ;  if  battens  are 
used  the  cost  would  be  10  cents  a  foot  extra.  I  took  delight 
in  seeing  this  man  figure  it  out.  He  is  going  his  own  way, 
and  he  is  going  it  the  best  he  knows  how.  Wanting  open 
sheds,  it  is  his  intention  that  they  shall  cost  the  least  possible 
amount  of  money. 

The  man  who  explained  the  dollar-a-foot  shed  is  a  crack- 
er jack  of  a  lumberman,  and  it  occurred  to  me  I  should  like 
to  see  him  established  in  business  alongside  of  a  man  who 
was  also  a  cracker  jack — one  with  a  shed  costing  $i  a  foot 
and  the  other  with  a  fine  modern  enclosed  shed,  and,  other 
things  being  equal,  see  which  would  pull  the  larger  trade. 
Of  course,  in  a  sense  the  above  statement  is  rank  nonsense, 
as  there  is  no  such  condition  as  Bother  things  being  equal." 
The  most  of  us  are  in  the  habit  of  using  the  term,  but  as  no 
two  things  or  conditions  are  exactly  alike  they  cannot  be 
equal.  But  to  drop  this  splitting  of  hairs,  who  do  you  think 
would  come  out  winner? 

The  largest  retail  business  in  the  northwest,  in  the  terri- 
tory over  which  I  have  traveled,  is  from  a  closed  shed.  This 
of  course  proves  nothing,  yet  it  is  a  straw  to  which  a  closed 
shed  advocate  might  point.  Maybe  he  might  say :  "There, 
doesn't  the  boss  lumberman  know  his  business?"  The  closed 
shed  is  no  doubt  a  trade  puller.  Scores  of  these  sheds  have 
their  defects,  but  the  virtue  of  drawing  trade  must  be  en- 
tered to  their  credit.  Particularly  does  a  farmer  want  to 
know  that  he  is  getting  dry  lumber.  I  hope  not  a  man  of 
you  takes  a  mean  advantage  of  your  customers,  but  if  you 
have  a  shed  and  incidentally  say  to  a  man  who  is  looking 
around  with  the  intention  of  buying  lumber  that  your  stock- 
is  all  kept  under  roof  and  is  therefore  bright  and  dry,  don't 
you  think  that  your  competitor  who  has  open  sheds,  with  his 
coarse  stock  piled  on  the  prairie  with  nothing  to  shelter  it 
from  rain  and  wind,  would  have  to  do  some  shouting  to 
overcome  the  argument?  That,  however,  is  not  a  mean  ad- 
vantage to  take  of  a  customer,  for  you  a're  probably  speak- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  33 

ing  the  truth  and  at  the  same  time  not  saying  a  word  against 
the  quality  of  your  neighbor's  stock. 

A  yard  man  told  me  the  other  day  that  his  figures  on  a 
bill  were  $8  more  than  those  of  his  neighbor,  yet  he  sold 
the  lumber,  the  closed  shed  argument  doing  the  work.  Not 
long  ago  when  sitting  in  a  shed  reducing  a  lath  to  shavings 
while  the  yard  man  went  to  talk  business  with  a  granger 
who  had  the  building  of  a  barn  in  view,  I  overheard  the 
yard  man  say  that  his  dimension,  being  kept  under  cover, 
was  straight  and  dry  and  therefore  a  frame  could  be  put  up 
from  it  that  was  right. 

That  is  an  argument  that  a  man  who  is  in  quest  of  lum- 
ber does  not  let  in  at  one  ear  and  out  of  the  other.  It  ap- 
peals to  all  the  common  sense  he  has.  You  or  I  might  think 
there  was  not  much  in  it,  but  the  man  who  is  intending  to 
put  up  the  frame  is  not  looking  through  our  eyes.  He  sees 
your  dimension  under  cover  and  your  neighbor's  piled  in 
the  open  air,  and  he  must  indeed  be  a  person  of  thick  skull 
if  he  does  not  reason  from  cause  to  effect.  He  can  plainly 
see  that  no  rain  falls  upon  the  dimension  that  is  under  roof, 
and  that  the  dimension  in  the  other  yard  is  out  in  every  rain- 
storm that  comes  that  way.  To  tell  which  lumber  under 
these  circumstances  he  will  favor  is  nearly  as  easy  as  tum- 
bling off  a  log. 

You  know  the  characteristics  of  the  red  cedar  shingle. 
Water  can  no  more  injure  it  than  it  can  a  duck.  By  many 
builders  the  hose  is  turned  on  this  shingle  before  it  is  nailed 
to  the  roof.  An  occasional  rainstorm  would  do  a  pile  of  red 
cedars  good.  A  lumberman  told  me  the  other  day,  however, 
that  from  a  commercial  point  of  view  the  place  to  keep  the 
red  cedar  shingles  is  under  cover.  ''Farmers  will  buy  them 
quicker,"  said  he.  'They  do  not  want  to  see  a  shingle  lying 
out  in  the  sun  and  rain.  They  think  it  is  being  abused  and 
that  such  treatment  will  deteriorate  it." 

There  are  yard  men  who  swear  by  open  sheds  who  are 
not  aware,  I  believe,  that  their  competitors  who  have  modern 
sheds  are  piling  up  arguments  every  day  in  favor  of  lumber 
that  is  under  roof;  but  they  are.  ''In  advertising  the  shed 


34  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

is  my  catchword,"  said  a  yard  man  who  has  a  shed  which 
even  a  blue-blooded  lumberman  ought  to  feel  was  good 
enough  for  him.  When  this  yard  man  advertises  in  his  local 
papers  he  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  his  lumber  is  kept 
under  cover  and  is  consequently  dry. 

A  yard  man  who  has  a  shed  that  is  enclosed  went  with 
me  to  the  yard  of  one  of  his  neighbors  and,  finding  it  run- 
ning itself,  we  walked  out  through  the  alleys  and  spied  out 
the  country.  "Gee !"  remarked  the  yard  man,  "see  the  shape 
the  lumber  on  top  of  those  piles  is  in !" 

And  sure  enough  it  was  in  bad  shape.  This  season  in 
this  section  has  been  one  of  the  worst  on  record  for  lumber. 
For  a  long  time  it  rained  nearly  every  night,  and  then  it 
would  be  hot  enough  the  next  day  to  hatch  eggs.  To  keep 
lumber  in  decent  shape  it  was  necessary  to  go  over  the  piles 
often  and  turn  the  top  boards.  This  duty  has  been  neg- 
lected in  the  yard  in  question,  and  the  result  was  an  eyesore. 
"When  I  see  a  thing  like  that  I  thank  my  stars  that  I  have 
a  shed/'  the  yard  man  remarked. 

Then  we  came  upon  a  pile  of  8x8  timber,  some  of  the 
pieces  badly  warped.  "No  doubt  those  timbers  have  lain 
there  two  years,  and  what  are  they  good  for?  Nothing,  if 
length  is  required,  for  all  that  can  be  done  with  them  is  to 
saw  them  up  into  short  lengths.  I  used  to  keep  timber  that 
way,  but  I  don't  do  it  any  more." 

Rather  pertinent  suggestions  these  were,  and  they  could 
be  taken  home  by  more  than  one  retail  lumberman  of  this 
glorious  country.  I  wish  I  had  kept  tab  on  the  number  of 
yards  visited  in  which  I  have  seen  timbers  warped  out  of 
shape.  Too  often  they  are  thrown  down  at  one  side  of  the 
yard  and  left  to  shift  for  themselves.  Yard  men  who  call 
themselves  up  to  snuff  do  this,  too.  The  timber  screw  is 
loose  in  their  heads.  In  one  yard  the  timber  was  nicely 
stuck  and  covered  with  cheap  boards.  "Those  No.  4  boards 
are  less  valuable  than  the  timber,"  was  the  way  the  yard 
man  put  it. 

We  had  held  down  the  office  chairs  a  few  minutes  when 
the  rightful  owner  came  gliding  down  the  street  on  his  bike, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  35 

and  said  he  was  glad  to  see  us.  He  said  his  man  was  sick 
that  day,  a  carpenter  was  working  at  his  house  and  he  didn't 
know  which  end  he  stood  on. 

"I  have  been  thinking  about  building  a  shed,"  he  re- 
marked, after  he  had  settled  down,  "but  don't  know  just  how 
to  go  at  it.  There  are  sheds  not  a  hundred  miles  from  here 
that  are  flat  failures,  as  I  look  at  it.  There  is  no  sense  put- 
ting hundreds  of  dollars  into  a  shed  unless  it  will  do  the 
business."  I  told  him  that  his  head  was  plumb.  Then  we 
talked  shed  for  a  straight  hour.  We  discussed  the  high  and 
low,  long  and  short,  ventilated  and  unventilated  sheds.  He 
said  he  was  going  to  think  the  matter  over. 


MIXING  IMPLEMENTS  AND  LUMBER. 

I  have  never  happened  to  hear  a  yard  man  brag  of 
the  profits  made  in  the  agricultural  implement  trade.  Years 
ago  when  the  western  farmer  was  poorer  than  Job's  old 
turkey  and  had  to  pay  three  prices  for  his  machinery  the 
middle  man  had  a  bonanza.  In  those  days  the  yard  man 
would  sell  a  harvester  and  bank  a  clean  $100  as  the  result. 
That  was  a  historic  period,  however,  and  may  its  like  never 
show  its  face  again.  When  a  lot  of  us  nabobs  take  undue 
advantage  of  our  neighbors  in  the  matter  of  prices,  roll  up 
wealth  and  live  higher  than  we  are  entitled  to  somebody 
unjustly  suffers.  That  is  a  social  law  that  no  logic  can 
down.  There  are  the  great  scales  forever  hanging  in  place 
and  unless  they  balance  some  one  is  getting  an  unjust  deal. 
The  affairs  of  life  are  so  complicated  that  we  may  be  unable 
to  single  out  that  some  one,  but  he  is  somewhere. 

When  I  hear  of  the  prices  which  the  farmers  in  an 
eariler  day  in  this  western  country  were  obliged  to  pay  for 
the  necessaries  of  life  I  do  not  wonder  they  have  so  often 
waged  war  on  the  middle  man.  And  prices  on  many  arti- 
cles of  merchandise  out  here  even  now  are  nearly  high 
enough,  thank  you.  I  was  recently  obliged  to  sit  in  court 


36  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

where  stolen  merchandise  was  identified,  and  during  the 
process  the  tradesmen  from  whom  the  goods  were  taken 
had  to  disclose  the  cost  mark  as  well  as  the  retail  price,  and 
the  difference  between  the  two  was  often  a  round  100  per- 
cent. Now  I  am  not  going  to  pay  a  merchant  100  percent 
profit  if  I  can  get  the  same  goods  for  less  money,  are  you? 
Without  asking  the  question  I  know  you  are  not.  You  see 
if  we  are  not  just  to  others;  if  when  dealing  with  them  we 


"They  make  my  eyes  stick  out." 

dig  a  hole  in  the  ground  and  bury  the  golden  rule  as  sure 
as  you  live  some  day  they  will  turn  on  us  and  nip  our  heels. 

I  recently  had  a  chat  with  a  yard  man  who  handles 
farm  implements  and  he  was  telling  the  same  story  I  have 
heard  so  many  times  that  from  a  financial  standpoint  it  was 
not  highly  satisfactory.  There  are  yard  men  who  may 
think  I  am  impudent,  but  in  order  to  get  at  the  true  inward- 
ness of  some  things  and  often  at  the  hocus  pocus  of  other 
things,  questions  must  be  asked  which  may  appear  out  of 
place,  unwarranted  and  even  silly.  I  once  heard  this  de- 
nominated as  "blank  newspaper  cheek."  All  my  friends 
have  to  do  in  such  cases,  however,  is  to  forgive  me,  and  then 
we  will  go  right  along  again  as  though  the  thing  had  never 
happened. 

This  yard  man  was  asked  if  the  selling  of  farm  machin- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  37 

cry  went  so  against  the  grain  why  he  continued  to  sell  it 
year  after  year.  Of  course  it  was  really  none  of  my  busi- 
ness why  he  continued  to  sell  it,  but  the  reply  brought  out 
an  answer  that  may  be  of  interest  to  you.  There  was  same 
common  sense  in  it,  too,  I  thought.  "The  bother  of  it,"  he 
said,  "outweighs  the  direct  profit,  I  am  inclined  to  think, 
but  competition  in  lumber  in  this  little  town  is  pretty  hot.  I 
am  the  only  man  here  who  sells  farm  machinery,  and  I  con- 
tinue to  sell  it  for  the  reason  that  it  brings  me  in  touch  with 
men  of  whom  otherwise  I  would  see  little.  First  and  last 
nearly  all  the  farmers  in  this  territory  drift  in  here,  and  I 
am  all  the  time  feeling  of  them  to  find  out  if  they  are  intend- 
ing to  do  anything  in  the  way  of  building.  I  sell  all  the 
machinery,  and  I  know  I  sell  my  full  share  of  lumber.  Now 
I  don't  stick  the  top  notch  price  on  my  implements.  I  would 
rather  a  man  would  get  the  impression  that  he  can  buy  a 
plow  or  mower  a  little  cheaper  of  me  than  he  can  buy  it  over 
to  the  next  town.  Once  a  farmer  finds  that  out  he  is  in- 
clined to  think  that  if  I  sell  implements  worth  the  money  I 
will  also  sell  lumber  worth  the  money.  It  does  not  always 
follow  of  course,  but  I  would  rather  the  farmers  would 
think  that  way  than  otherwise/' 

"Then  your  implement  business  is  more  than  anything 
else  a  feeder  to  your  lumber  traffic?" 

"That  is  it  exactly.  If  it  wasn't  for  that  I  would  sell  out 
the  machinery  as  fast  as  I  could,  and  stay  out.  I  might  run 
it  as  an  independent  business  if  I  had  nothing  else  on  hand, 
but  I  wouldn't  mix  it  with  lumber  unless  I  thought  it  helped 
my  lumber  trade." 

Evidently  this  man's  first  love  is  lumber,  and  all  this 
time  he  is  manipulating  the  machinery  deal  to  help  his  lum- 
ber trade.  His  idea,  as  you  have  seen,  is  to  get  the  farmers 
to  come  to  his  place  and  then  talk  crib,  barn  and  house  to 
them.  No  doubt  his  implement  business  makes  him  some 
money.  It  may  give  him  bother,  but  I  hardly  think  that  all 
these  years  he  would  be  sending  good  dollars  after  poor 
ones.  He  ranks  his  machinery,  however,  as  the  grocer 


38  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

ranks  his  sugar  boxes  or  the  dry  goods  man  his  pile  of 
sheeting — as  leaders.  This  man  sells  a  large  amount  of 
lumber  and  how  much  of  his  lumber  trade  is  due  to  his 
traffic  in  implements  would  of  course  be  past  finding  out. 
It  is  a  sort  of  advertising  proposition.  If  you  advertise  in 
your  local  papers  and  during  that  time  build  up  a  good  trade 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  much  of  that  trade  is  a  result  of 
advertising.  The  direct  results  of  any  species  of  advertis- 
ing can  rarely  be  reached ;  but  if  you  have  the  trade  you  are 
satisfied.  Moreover,  this  yard  man  in  lumber  and  imple- 
ments has  hustled  together  thousands  of  dollars,  and  that  is 
what  tells  the  business  end  of  the  storv. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  TRADE. 

Having  hung  my  overcoat  on  the  back  of  a  chair,  we 
had  not  chatted  five  minutes  before  the  yard  man  asked 
me  to  see  the  business  he  had  done  during  the  year.  Then 
he  opened  his  books  and  showed  me  his  sales  month  by 
month.  They  were  heavier  than  at  the  first  of  the  year 
he  expected  they  would  be  and  as  a  result  he  was  feeling 
good.  So  did  I.  I  regard  the  retailers  of  the  country 
as  one  big  family  and  never  hear  of  their  prosperity  without 
rejoicing  with  them. 

This  same  man  is  a  crackerjack  of  a  lumberman — 
you  are  safe  to  wager  your  new  hat  on  that.  He  has 
learned  the  business  from  a  to  z ;  and  to  start  with  he 
had  the  head  to  learn  it.  No  matter  how  enthusiastic  in 
our  business  we  may  be  we  must  have  the  head,  or  we  will 
never  make  progress  that  will  stun  a  community.  A  head 
is  a  necessary  foundation  for  any  business. 

As  we  were  spreading  ourselves  around  a  hot  stove  this 
yard  man  gave  expression  to  a  bit  of  shrewd  retail  lore. 

If  you  didn't  know  what  this  man  was  up  to  you  might 
call  him  a  dimension  crank.  He  appears  to  be  positively 
gone  on  fine  piece  stuff,  If  he  were  offered  a  low  grade 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  39 

of  No.  i  at  a  price  that  might  cause  us  to  jump  for  it  as  a 
trout  would  jump  for  a  fly  he  would  sit  back  in  his  chair 
and  not  show  a  sign.  Offer  to  give  him  No.  2  dimension 
and  he  wouldn't  take  it  if  a  condition  was  that  he  must 
retail  it  from  his  yard.  This  man  has  not  been  in  his  pres- 
ent location  long  and  he  has  set  about  to  build  up  a  trade 
along  the  lines  which  please  his  customers.  There  are  sev- 
eral of  us  who  appear  to  be  ignorant  of  the  fact,  or  to  forget 
it,  that  there  are  trade  methods  of  that  nature.  Our  inten- 
tion to  please  may  be  all  right  but  we  do  not  make  a  study  of 
what  wrill  please.  •  * 

A  month  ago  I  was  in  an  office  when  a  customer  was 
settling  his  bill  that  amounted  to  sixty  odd  dollars,  and  a 
discussion  arose  over  some  item  that  was  charged  at  $1.25. 
I  shpuld  judge  from  the  cut  of  this  man's  jib  that  he  might 
live  in  town  and  had  been  making  improvements  in  his 
house.  Notwithstanding  who  he  was,  I  know  that  some 
men  are  mighty  provoking  when  they  come  to  settle  their 
bills.  They  will  walk  on  our  necks  if  we  will  let  them. 
This  customer  strenuously  objected  to  the  charge  and  he 
looked  as  though  he  was  honest  in  it.  What  I  disliked, 
however,  was  to  see  the  yard  man  go  up  in  the  air,  as  we  say 
of  trotting  horses.  Just  at  the  time  when  his  temper  should 
have  done  him  good  service  it  went  on  a  strike.  He  did 
not  bluster  and  blow  and  swear,  but  it  was  plain  that  in- 
ternally he  was  a  good  deal  agitated.  He  forgot  to  be  a 
diplomat.  He  slammed  the  book  shut  and  said  in  a  crisp 
way  that  it  wouldn't  make  any  great  difference  to  him  a 
hundred  years  from  now !  It  is  very  hard  for  average 
people  to  understand  sarcasm  and  irony.  They  take  you 
as  you  say,  or  they  don't  take  you  as  you  mean,  and  every- 
thing considered  it  is  perhaps  as  well  in  every  day  business 
life  to  talk  good  plain  English.  It  carries  farther  than  the 
whole  batch  of  the  other  ways  of  expression. 

This  office  was  close  to  a  railroad  track  and  across  the 
street  I  could  see  from  where  I  sat  a  horse  hitched  to  a  post. 
A  locomotive  came  puffing  along  and  this  horse  stuck  up  his 


40  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

head  and  started  in  to  dance  a  jig.  Some  well  meaning 
man  who  was  passing  took  the  horse  by  the  bit  and  patted 
and  stroked  his  neck.  He  no  doubt  spoke  kind  and  sooth- 
ing words  to  him,  but  those  I  could  not  hear.  The  effect  of 
such  treatment  is  generally  the  same  whether  on  man  or 
beast.  The  horse  cooled  down.  The  yard  man  ought  to 
have  handled  this  customer  in  some  such  way  as  that.  The 
customer  was  a  little  putchy,  as  we  used  to  say  back  east 
when  we  were  boys,  but  no  doubt  he  could  have  been  cooled 
down  in  three  minutes.  All  on  account  of  that  little  feel- 
ing over  that  insignificant  $1.25  the  yard  man  may  have  lost 


'Tatted  and  stroked  his  neck." 

a  customer.  I  do  not  claim  for  a  minute  that  the  yard  man 
should  have  knuckled  to  this  customer  and  thrown  off  the 
item  when  he  knew  he  had  the  goods;  what  I  objected  to 
was  the  spirit  he  showed  in  the  matter.  In  the  ordinary 
trade  dealings  it  ought  to  take  more  than  $1.25  to  make  us 
mad.  That  amount  will  not  pay  for  the  wear  and  tear.  To 
be  hired  I  wouldn't  get  mad  this  minute  for  a  $10  bill,  for  if 
I  should  the  chances  are  I  would  kick  my  old  typewriter 
out  the  window,  and  it  would  take  more  money  than  I 
would  get  in  the  next  week  to  have  it  put  in  shape  again. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  41 

Firmness,  when  backed  by  kindness,  goes  a  long  way. 
When  we  let  any  man  run  over  us  any  one  minute  in  the 
year  we  make  a  mistake,  and  when  we  show  a  disposition 
that  may  lead  others  to  think  that  we  would  run  over  them 
it  is  another  mistake.  It  is  surprising  how  differences  can 
be  adjusted  if  we  go  at  it  in  the  right  spirit.  But  when  we 
are  mad  we  don't  know  who  we  are  or  where  we  are  at. 

Now  we  will  bring  up  the  yard  man  who  for  the  time 
being  was  sidetracked.  I  knew  his  passion  for  fine  dimen- 
sion, but  had  not  up  to  that  date  gotten  at  the  true  inward- 
ness of  it.  You  kno\v  that  a  man  who  will  not  tell  you  a 
thing  today  may  tell  it  to  you  tomorrow.  Today  he  may 
think  it  of  no  consequence  to  tell  you,  or  he  may  not  be  in 
the  mood.  In  company  with  the  little  spider  we  must  try, 
try  again.  That  is  the  way  we  fellows  who  are  on  a  sly 
hunt  for  something  which  we  hope  may  interest  you  have' 
to  angle  around.  One  day  when  the  hook  is  thrown  into  a 
hole  there  isn't  a  nibble ;  the  next  day  the  whole  outfit,  bob, 
hook  and  sinker,  is  swallowed.  This  yard  man  was  feeling 
first  rate  over  the  year's  business ;  sitting  there  by  the  stove 
with  the  cold  December  winds  beating  against  the  windows 
a  sense  of  comfort  cheered  him;  and  then  I  guess  we  were 
glad  to  see  each  other.  I  know  I  was  glad  to  see  him. 
These  things  tend  to  open  a  man's  heart.  And  you  know  it 
makes  a  vast  difference  whether  a  man's  heart  is  opened  or 
whether  it  is  only  his  mouth.  I  wouldn't  give  a  cent  to  talk 
all  day  with  the  best  lumberman  in  North  America  who 
would  just  talk  with  his  mouth. 

"I  want  none  but  fine  dimension  in  my  shed,''  said  this 
yard  man.  "When  a  farmer  comes  in  to  buy  lumber  it  is 
the  dimension  he  looks  at.  If.it  is  bright  and  straight  and 
clean  he  thinks  you  have  a  great  stock  of  lumber.  He  does 
not  expect  to  be  shown  the  finishing  stuff,  for  he  doesn't 
know  anything  about  finish.  What  does  he  know  about 
letters  of  the  alphabet  when  they  are  used  to  designate 
grades  of  lumber?  Then  it  is  the  finish — the  very  lumber 


42  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

that  the  farmer  does  not  want  to  see — that  can  be  manipu- 
lated so  there  is  money  in  it !" 

I  do  not  know  what  your  verdict  may  be,  but  I  call 
that  shrewd. 

Along  the  line  of  the  above,  namely,  that  of  pleasing 
customers,  I  want  to  add  another  illustration.  The  most  of 
us  are  anxious  to  sell  as  many  dollars'  worth  of  lumber  as 
we  possibly  can.  If  a  farmer,  worth  his  fine  farm  all  paid 
for,  should  come  in  with  a  large  barn  bill  calling  for,  say, 
$900  worth  of  material  we  would  like  his  account  to  run  up 
to  those  figures.  That  is  as  natural  as  it  is  to  breathe.  But 
all  rules  have  their  exceptions.  A  barn  bill  of  this  charac- 
ter was  presented  to  these  men  alluded  to  and  one  of  them, 
being  posted  on  the  various  methods  of  construction,  said 
to  the  farmer  that  he  was  on  the  road  to  paying  too  much 
money  for  his  barn.  Then  he  figured  out  to  him  how  much 
could  be  saved.  Where  he  thought  the  plan  needed  chang- 
ing he  changed  it.  He  reduced  the  size  of  some  of  the 
dimension.  He  put  in  box  sills  instead  of  solid  timbers. 
Where  the  specifications  called  for  C  finish  for  frames  and 
doors  he  led  the  farmer  to  see  clearly  that  a  lower  grade  of 
lumber  would  answer  as  well.  When  all  these  changes  had 
been  made  the  farmer  found  that  he  was  in  pocket  about  an 
even  $100. 

What  would  you  think  of  a  man  who  would  spend  hours 
of  his  time  showing  you  how  you  could  save  $100?  And 
this,  too,  where  you  had  not  the  slightest  idea  it  could  be 
saved?  Wouldn't  you  tie  to  him?  Wouldn't  you  say  to 
your  neighbors  that  there  was  the  man  for  them  to  deal 
with?  You  would  sing  his  praises  every  opportunity  you 
had.  He  would  own  your  trade  as  long  as  you  bought  lum- 
ber and  he  sold  it. 

There  is  many  a  tradesman  in  and  out  of  the  lumber 
business  whose  aim  it  is  to  make  the  most  money  possible 
out  of  every  individual  deal.  But  that  isn't  the  way  to  build 
up  a  trade  that  will  stay  by  you.  David  Harnm's  injunc- 
tion, "Do  unto  the  other  feller  as  he  would  do  unto  you — 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  43 

and  do  it  fust/'  is  both  unique  and  amusing,  but  it  is 
neither  honest  nor  good  business.  If  it  is  a  man's  intention 
to  get  all  the  money,  honestly  or  otherwise,  that  he  can  he 
may  as  well  go  out  the  first  dark  night  and  rob  a  bank. 
When  we  have  made  the  last  analysis  it  is  as  much  our  duty 
to  look  out  for  the  interest  of  the  other  fellow  as  it  is  to 
protect  our  own.  I  do  not  suppose  that  all  of  us  sell  lumber 
on  this  principle  every  day,  but  we  ought  to.  The  old 
golden  rule  is  a  good  enough  guide  board  for  anybody. 
And  it  has  this  advantage :  If  we  go  in  the  way  it  points  we 
never  regret  it. 


VALUE   OF  APPEARANCE. 

Do  vou  ever  stop  to  reflect  what  a  factor  appearance 
is  in  human  affairs?  Did  it  not  have  nearly  all  to  do 
with  the  selection  of  the  town  in  which  you  decided  to 
make  your  home,  and  even  with  the  selection  of  your  wife? 
It  is  fairly  safe  to  say  that  if  the  contour  of  the  face  of 
the  girl  you  married  had  been  slightly  different,  her  eyes 
or  hair  another  color,  she  would  have  fried  bacon  for  some 
other  fellow.  We  like  to  have  it  thought  that  we  fell  in 
love  with  our  wives  because  of  their  angelic  temper,  but 
the  cold  fact  is  that  nine-tenths  of  us  were  dead  in  love 
with  them  before  we  knew  they  had  a  temper.  At  the  start 
the  attraction  was  physical,  and  if  they  turned  out  to  have 
angelic  tempers  all  the  better  for  us. 

When  we  know  that  it  is  really  the  influence  of  ap- 
pearance that  moves  the  world,  why  should  we  not  have 
the  good  sense  to  carry  the  idea  into  our  business?  .A  few 
days  ago  I  visited  a  town  in  which  there  are  two  yards.  At 
one  of  them  I  chatted  awhile,  and  then  went  across  town 
to  the  other.  In  front  of  the  latter  was  a  pond  of  water 
which  started  at  the  office  and  stretched  along  in  front  of 
the  yard.  When  a  team  drove  in  or  out  of  the  yard  it  was 
splash,  splash,  splash !  When  I  visited  the  first  yard  and 
saw  it  graded  up  around  the  premises  and  everything  high 


44 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


and  dry  above  the  water,  which  on  every  hand  was  accumu- 
lating from  the  melting  snow,  I  didn't  give  it  particular 
thought  until  I  saw  the  neighbor's  premises.  We  know 
little  except  by  comparison.  Had  there  been  none  but  white 
men  in  the  world  the  idea  of  calling  us  white  would  never 
have  occurred,  and  were  there  no  bad  men  the  idea  of 
calling  us  good  would  not  have  entered  the  heads  of  all 
those  who  know  us.  We  are  known  as  good  simply  be- 
cause others  are  known  as  bad;  therefore  it  seems  to  me 


"Located  on  Lake  Mud." 

that  we  ought  not  to  bear  down  on  our  opposites  too  roundly, 
for  were  it  not  for  them  it  would  never  be  known  what  vir- 
tuous fellows  we  are. 

This  last  yard  man  was  of  course  consoling  himself 
with  the  thought  that  the  water  in  front  of  his  place 
would  not  be  there  long.  In  a  few  days  at  the  longest 
none  of  it  would  be  seen.  He  said:  "It  is  awfully  muddy 
around  here  just  now !"  But  there  it  is  in  the  spring,  fall, 
and  following  the  heavy  rains  in  the  summer.  I  asked  this 
dealer  how  long  he  had  sold  lumber  at  that  stand  and 
he  said  six  years.  No  doubt  for  six  years  he  has  endured 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  45 

the  mud  puddle.  I  hope  you  will  not  think  I  am  finnicky 
about  these  things.  It  is  none  of  my  business  whether  a 
man  has  one  or  four  little  ponds  in  front  of  his  lumber  yard. 
But  here  is  the  point — on  my  rounds  I  can't  help  noticing 
these  things.  If  I  were  the  only  man  who  saw  them  I 
would  keep  still,  but  there  are  others  who  see  them  as 
quickly  as  I  do.  No  doubt  a  hundred  people  had  noticed 
that  puddle  of  water  and  thought,  and  perhaps  said,  it  was 
a  case  of  shiftlessness. 

The  man  whose  yard  is  located  on  Lake  Mud  is  not 
the  leader  of  trade  in  his  line  in  that  town;  and  do  you 
know  why  he  should  be?  We  will  imagine  he  is  as  much 
off  in  a  few  other  things  as  he  is  in  this — don't  you  see 
how  trade  would  be  diverted  from  him?  Why,  bless  you, 
we  are  right  here  touching  on  a  law  that  is  as  inevitable 
as  were  those  of  the  Medes  and  Persians.  Socially  this 
yard  man  is  a  good  fellow.  He  couldn't  have  treated  the 
assessor  better  than  he  did  me,  and  I  hope  he  will  not  know 
who  I  am  singling  out  in  this  little  article.  To  throw  him 
off  the  track  I  will  say  that  during  this  wet  spring  weather 
I  have  seen  several  mud  puddles  in  front  of  lumber  offices. 
Wherever  they  may  be,  however,  the  yard  man  would  better 
haul  in  a  few  loads  of  gravel. 


PROMPT  PAYMENT  AND  OTHERWISE. 

There  are  many  varieties  of  payments.  Some  of  us 
hardly  do  enough  cash  business  to  make  a  man  wink  if  it 
were  put  in  his  eye.  Then  there  are  time  payments  stretch- 
ing from  thirty  days  to  eternity. 

As  you  are  paid  promptly  and  otherwise,  so  undoubt- 
edly you  pay  in  the  same  way.  In  common  with  thou- 
sands of  other  things,  the  matter  of  payment  becomes  a 
habit.  I  know  a  yard  man  who  is  backed  with  a  load  of 
money,  yet  he  never  thinks  of  discounting  a  bill.  He  will 
even  ask  extensions,  and  has  been  so  glacial-like  that  there 


46  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

are  salesmen  who  do  not  try  to  sell  him  at  all.  I  believe 
this  is  due  largely  to  a  habit  of  procrastination.  This  dealer 
expects  to  pay  some  time,  of  course — knows  he  will  have 
to  pay — but  he  puts  off  drawing  the  check  from  one  hour 
to  another,  from  one  day  to  another,  and  thus  time  slides 
away  from  him.  I  may  not  be  right  in  this  diagnosis,  but  I 
am  willing  to  think  it  is  so.  When  we  know  a  good  fellow 
and  he  has  a  fault  or  two  I  believe  we  should  be  very  chari- 
table in  dealing  with  him,  especially  when  it  doesn't  cost  us 


"The  way  he  wore  his  hat." 

anything,  for  the  first  we  may  know  we  may  want  him 
to  be  overlooking  some  little  rot  spot  in  ourselves.  We 
all  have  them,  and  somebody  knows  about  them,  too. 

A  yard  man  discussed  the  subject  of  prompt  payment. 
"My  discounts  amount  to  $600  or  $800  a  year,  and  will 
about  pay  a  good  man,"  said  he.  "If  I  want  money  I  can 
go  to  my  bank  and  get  it.  They  know  what  I  am  doing  and 
how  I  am  fixed.  If  I  want  a  loan  they  know  it  is  because 
for  the  time  being  I  cannot  swing  things  to  my  satisfaction. 
If  I  should  go  to  staving  bills  off  with  the  men  of  whom  I 
buy  my  lumber  they  would  not  know  what  the  matter  was." 


REALM  OF  'THE  RETAILER.  47 

This  is  undoubtedly  good  business  policy,  but  it  is  not  every- 
body who  believes  in  it,  however. 

I  was  in  a  yard  the  proprietor  of  which  wore  his  hat 
tipped  forward,  which  means  that  he  is  a  man  of  marked 
characteristics.  The  man  who  goes  around  with  his  hat 
pulled  down  over  his  eyes  is  independent,  pugnacious,  secret- 
ive, and  sometimes  mean.  I  do  not  say  it  invariably  indi- 
cates a  mean  streak,  for  maybe  a  few  readers  of  this  chapter 
wear  their  hats  in  that  way.  This  dealer  touched  on  the 
question  of  payments.  "The  matter  of  payments  causes  me 
no  worry/'  said  he.  •  "I  pay  my  debt?  sometime — that  is 
dead  sure.-  If  I'pjay  in  thirty  days  it  is  all  right — if  not,  it 
is  all  right*  The  /wholesale  merchant  who  is  particular  as 
to  this  is  pot  obliged  to  selj  me  lumber.  Today  I  have 
$9,000  on  qiy  books  that  is  as  good  as  the  wheat,  but  to  get 
that  money  within  thirty  days  would  be  an  impossibility. 
And  when  Mr.  Wholesaler  has  bills  on  his  books  which  he 
knows  will  come  I  don't  know  why  a  little  time  should  make 
any  more  difference  with  him  than  it  does  with  me.  He 
probably  does  not  want  to  use  the  money  that  is  due  him 
any  more  than  I  da  the  money  that  is- due.  me." 

I  had  never  heard  a  yard  man  talk  precisely  like  this  be- 
fore, and  I  attributed  it  to  the  way  he  wore  his  hat. 


BILLS   SHOULD  GO   WITH   THE   LUMBER. 

There  was  no  one  in  the  office  when  I  went  in,  so  I 
arranged  my  new  red  necktie,  pulled  my  pants  up  so 
they  wouldn't  get  strained  at  the  knee  and  waited  for 
somebody  to  put  in' an  appearance.  I  could  hear  two  men 
talking  in  another  room  about  the  difference  in  the  price 
of  something.  They  did  not  get  excited,  but  one  said  he 
was  sure  that  was  the  price  named  to  him,  and  the  other 
one  said  he  would  never  think  of  making  such  a  price  to 
anybody.  I  couldn't  get  the  whole  drift  of  the  conversa- 
tion and  didn't  want  to.  A  fellow  feels  like  a  thief  in  the 


48 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


night  when  he  is  obliged  to  sit  and  listen  to  a  conversation 
that  is  intended  to  be  private.  I  almost  felt  like  whittling 
out  some  wooden  plugs  and  sticking  them  in  my  ears. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  yard  man  and  his  customer  came 
from  the  private  office.  The  customer  unhitched  his  horse 
and  drove  away  and,  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  in  less 
than  five  minutes  the  lumberman  touched  upon  the  private 
office  episode. 


A  A 


"Waited  for  somebody  to  come  in." 


"That  man  that  just  left  here  made  some  repairs  on  his 
house  last  summer,''  he  explained.  "Among  other  things 
he  put  in  a  new  front  door.  The  price  of  it  was  $4.50. 
He  insisted  that  I  priced  it  to  him  at  $2.50.  .1  had  a  door 
at  that  price,  no  doubt  showed  it  to  him  and  he  got  them 
mixed.  It  has  been  nearly  four  months  now  since  the  stuff 
was  bought,  and  a  man  can  forget  and  mix  up  a  great  many 
things  in  that  time.  There  was  a  lot  of  porch  material, 
maple  flooring  etc.,  and  he  had  the  prices  of  them  all 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  49 

down  pat.  What  did  I  do?  Allowed  it  of  course.  Don't 
know  as  I  ought  to,  but  he  is  one  of  those  positive  men 
who  think  they  know  as  much  as  anybody,  and  in  addi- 
tion he  is  buying  stuff  of  me  right  along.  I  am  putting  him 
in  his  winter's  coal  today." 

You  can  see  how  the  yard  man  felt.  He  was  dealing 
with  a  good  customer,  and  he  thought  that  should  he  insist 
on  the  payment  of  the  $2  the  customer  might  be  lost  to 
him.  You  might  have  taken  another  course ;  you  might 
have  convinced  the  man  that  he  was  wrong.  That  is  the 
way  it  goes;  what  one  man  does  not  feel  like  doing  the 
next  one  would  do  with  all  his  might. 

I  suggested  that,  as  I  looked  at  it,  the  only  safe  way 
when  selling  goods  on  credit  is  to  furnish  a  bill  to  the 
purchaser,  and  the  sooner  after  the  sale  is  made  the  bet- 
ter, as  then  there  can  be  no  excuse  for  any  misunderstand- 
ing. "You  are  not  dealing  with  another  merchant,"  I  said. 
"The  average  buyer  of  lumber  has  not  been  trained  in  busi- 
ness methods.  If  he  is  bungle-headed  and  feels  like  dis- 
puting your  bill  he  is  going  to  do  it." 

"Blank  it,"  he  replied,  "I  know  that  is  the  way  to  do.  In 
less  than  five  minutes  I  could  have  given  him  a  bill  of 
that  stuff,  and  then  it  would  have. been  all  straight." 

It  will  be  no  news  to  you  if  I  say  that  the  retail  lum- 
bermen do  a  sight  of  haphazard  work  in  this  direction. 
There  is  probably  not  one  dealer  in  a  dozen  who  thinks  of 
rendering  a  bill  when  the  goods  are  delivered.  The  lumber 
is  strung  along  to  a  job,  the  builder  does  not  know  how 
much  lumber  he  is  getting,  further  than  that  he  supposes 
that  his  order  is  being  filled.  It  is  not,  however,  always 
being  filled.  For  some  reason  it  may  not  suit  the  conven- 
ience of  the  yard  man  to  deliver  all  of  it  at  the  same  time. 
He  may  be  waiting  for  another  car.  The  yard  foreman  may 
have  made  a  mistake  in  tallying  out  the  lumber.  You  will 
readily  understand  there  may  be  a  score  of  reasons  why 
you  would  not  immediately  deliver  entire  a  house  or  barn 
bill.  You  don't  often  do  it.  But  if  a  bill  is  rendered  for 


50  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

every  load  that  goes  out — sent  by  the  drayman,  and  by  him 
given  to  the  man  for  whom  the  lumber  is  intended,  and  the 
drayman  takes  a  receipt  back — then  the  yard  man  has  done 
his  duty,  and  he  has  done  precisely  what  he  should  do 
if  he  aspires  to  do  business  on  business  principles.  If  the 
carpenter  is  on  the  house  insist  that  he  come  down  and  see 
that  he  gets  what  the  bill  calls  for.  If  he  is  not  there  have 
his  best  man  attend  to  it.  I  know  of  no  other  way  of  clean- 
ing up  the  thing  as  you  go  along,  in  order  that  it  may  be 
perfectly  satisfactory  to  both  parties  once  and  for  all.  It 
requires  a  little  work.  Of  course  it  does.  But  have  you 
ever  got  into  a  snarl  when  you  did  not  wish  you  had  given 
the  little  work  which  would  have  prevented  it? 

An  experience  of  this  kind  served  to  impress  the  im- 
portance of  this  bill  business  firmly  in  my  mind.  One  fall 
when  I  bought  coal  in  Chicago  I  received  by  mail  the  next 
morning  a  bill  for  it.  The  pile  of  coal  and  the  amount  billed 
did  not,  in  my  judgment,  tally.  I  immediately  saw  the  coal 
man,  told  him  there  was  a  mistake,  that  only  two  or  three 
hodsfnl  had  been  taken  from  the  pile,  and  I  wanted  him  to 
go  and  look  at  it.  He  knew  me  pretty  well,  for  I  had  bought 
considerable  coal  of  him,  still  he  looked  as  though  he 
thought  I  might  be  crazy  or  otherwise  out  of  shape.  It  was 
of  course  running  through  the  dealer's  head  that  when  a 
certain  number  of  tons  of  coal  was  ordered  at  his  office 
there  was  no  good  reason  why  that  number  should  not  have 
been  delivere'l  from  his  yards.  He  went  over  with  me  to 
look  at  the  coal.  "By  George !  That  is  right.  There  is  no 
such  amount  of  coal  there.  I  think  you  have  got  about  half 
the  coal  you  ought  to  have,"  he  said.  He  went  back,  inves- 
tigated, and  discovered  that  while  five  loads  should  have 
gone  to  my  house  only  three  were  delivered.  There  was  a 
hitch  in  the  delivery  system — simply  one  of  those  little  mis- 
takes that  is  liable  to  occur  in  the  best  of  families. 

Now  what  if  no  bill  had  been  rendered?  I  should  have 
thought  that  the  coal  man  would  put  in  the  balance  of  the 
coal  when  he  got  around  to  it.  At  the  end  of  thirty  days 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  51 

I  should  have  gone  to  his  office  to  pay  for  the  coal  I  had. 
Ten  tons  at  $6  a  ton ! 

"Oh,  no,  but  I  didn't  have  that  amount !" 

Then  how  many  things  the  coal  man  might  have  thought. 
He  might  have  thought  that  the  coal  had  been  burned, 
stolen,  that  the  Dutch  hired  girl  had  swapped  it  for  loud 
striped  hosiery — there  would  be  no  end  to  the  things  he 
might  have  thought.  The  chances  are  that  he  would  not 


"Swapped   it  for  loud  striped  hosiery." 

have  been  satisfied,  neither  would  I.  Very  likely  the  next 
time  some  other  dealer  would  have  sold  me  my  winter's 
coal.  The  bill  was  really  the  means  of  keeping  us  good 
business  friends. 

We  must  remember  that  in  order  to  do  business  suc- 
cessfully there  ought  to  be  two  satisfied  parties  to  every 
transaction,  the  man  who  sells  the  goods  and  the  man  who 
buys  them.  There  must  at  any  rate  be  one — the  man  who 
buys  them — else  he  will  not  come  our  way  the  next  time. 


52  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

COMFORTABLE  OFFICES. 

1  he  yard  man  was  fitting  storm  sash,  and  he  said  he 
was  going  to  see  if  he  couldn't  occupy  his  office  this  winter 
with  some  comfort.  ''Year  after  year  I  have  nearly  frozen 
out  of  here,"  he  said. 

It  is  surprising  how  many  lumber  offices  there  are  which 
are  the  merest  plugs.  They  are  suited  for  neither  warm  nor 
cold  weather.  So  located  that  they  get  the  full  blaze  of 
the  sun,  without  an  awning  or  a  friendly  tree  to  give  shade, 
in  hot  weather  they  are  ovens ;  and  without  storm  windows 
or  even  weather  strips  to  keep  the  gale  from  whistling 
through  numerous  cracks  in  winter  they  breed  chills  up  the 
backbone. 

When  I  travel  from  a  few  to  a  good  many  miles  to  see 
a  dealer  I  naturally  like  to  sit  and  chat  in  a  comfortable 
place.  I  know,  however,  there  will  be  no  stopping  of  holes 
and  cracks  for  my  convenience.  There  ought  to  be,  though, 
for  the  comfort  of  the  men  who  stay  in  the  offices  the  year 
round.  It  will  take  none  of  the  fat  off  our  bones  if  as  we 
go  along  we  avail  ourselves  of  all  the  little  comforts  which 
come  our  way.  There  was  a  lounge  in  the  private  office  of 
one  place  visited.  The  day  was  as  hot  as  a  mustard  plaster, 
and  as  I  stripped  off  my  coat  and  with  utter  abandon  threw 
myself  on  the  couch  I  couldn't  help  remarking  to  the  yard 
man  that  that  was  the  stuff. 

Not  long  ago  I  was  in  an  office  and  there  was  not  a 
chair  to  sit  in  except  old-fashioned  wooden  bottom  affairs. 
Don't  think  that  I  am  complaining  on  my  account.  It  is  on 
account  of  the  lumberman  who  is  growing  old,  and  who 
when  he  feels  like  sitting  for  a  few  minutes  has  not  an  easy 
arm  chair  to  drop  into.  This  yard  man  fired  up  his  pipe, 
and  to  see  him  smoking  and  sitting  in  an  old  kitchen  chair 
that  didn't  cost  to  exceed  39  cents  at  the  bargain  counter 
did  not  tally  with  the  eternal  fitness  of  things.  A  pipe  of 
tobacco  calls  for  an  easy  chair.  Our  great  thinkers  don't 
meditate  with  a  pipe  in  their  mouths  when  sitting  on  a 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  53 

plank.     The  accompanying  slivers  and  ache  would  surely 
shut  out  great  thought. 

There  are  people  who  say  that  in  order  to  be  good  we 
must  do  penance;  that  we  should  go  through   life   with, 
say,  something  like  a  kernel  of  wheat  in  our  stocking,  or  a 
pin  with  which  we  have  tried  to  close  up  a  rip  in  our  pants 
pricking  us  at  every  step.    It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  such 
philosophy  is  ripe.     That  warm   spell,  a  couple  of  weeks 
ago,  I  was  out  among  my  trees,  and  feeling  a  touch  of  that 
natural  tiredness  which  at  times  both  attacks  and  afflicts  me, 
I  threw  myself  upon  a  bunch  of  fallen  leaves  that  the  wind 
had  left  in  a  pile  and  tried  to  get  right  down  close  to  mother 
earth  just  like  a  gopher.     We  don't  live  near  enough  to 
mother  earth,  do  you  know  it?    We  get  away  from  it  and 
its  magnificent  teachings,  and  become  unnatural  and  stuck 
up,  shriveled.    It  seems  to  me  that  I  have  gathered  some  of 
my  most  consoling  thoughts  from  a  contemplation  of  the 
earth.     Its  sermons  are  wiser  than  any  man's.     But  as   I 
was  saying,  I  laid  on  those  leaves  in  a  condition  of  mental 
bliss.     There  was  not  a  pain  anywhere  about  me.     There 
was  a  chicken  pie  provided  for  dinner.     My  children  were 
at  school  studying  so  they  might  become  presidents.     My 
best  girl  was  as  happy  as  any  woman  well  can  be.    The  air 
was  balmy.     The  leaves  were  rustling  as  if  they  were  sing- 
ing to  me  a  lullaby.     What  if  out  from  those  leaves  had 
crawled  a  bumblebee  or  wasp  and  given  it  to  me  ?     My 
world  of  bliss  would  have  been  punctured.     No.     I'll  not 
take  any  of  those  things  as  a  matter  of  choice.     We'll  get 
plenty  of  them  without  hunting  them  up.     I  am  going  to 
sit  on  a  cushioned  seat  if  I  can,  and  the  other  fellow  may 
sit  on  tacks  if  he  wants  to. 


54 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


AN  EASY  WAY  TO  HANG  DOORS. 

If  you  were  to  bet  your  last  dollar  that  there  were  not  a 
dozen  yard  men  in  the  country  who  hang  samples  of  their 
front  doors  so  they  may  easily  and  quickly  be  inspected 
by  the  customer  you  would  retain  your  money  and  win  the 
other  fellow's.  It  might  be  safe  to  bet  ten  to  one  that  not 
half  that  number,  except  in  the  old-fashioned  way  invented 

by  your  grandfather 
and  mine,  namely,  no 
way  at  all,  exhibit  their 
doors.  I  know  only  two 
dealers  who  show  their 
doors  in  any  but  this  old- 
style  way.  Nine-tenths 
of  us  can  imagine  that 
if  our  fancy  doors  were 
so  hung  that  a  child 
could  swing  them  back 
and  forth,  thus  showing 
both  sides,  with  no  lift- 
ing, no  marring,  no 
knocking  off  the  legs  of 
a  customer  in  an  endeav- 
or to  haul  another  door 
from  the  common  pile, 
^  would  be  a  good  thing. 
We  know  well  enough 
that  when  our  doors  are.  setting  around  promiscuously  in 
the  storeroom  they  cannot  be  shown  to  either  their  credit  or 
ours.  Especially  to  ours. 

If  you  have  the  space,  with  the  desire  to  do  so  as  an 
annex,  here  is  a  plan  that  will  enable  you  at  practically 
no  expense  to  hang  your  doors  so  they  may  be  inspected 
quickly  by  the  man  who  wants  to  buy.  The  materials 
required  are  two  pieces  of  inch  boards,  five  or  six  inches 
long  and  an  inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches  wide.  Bore  a 


"May  be  inspected  quickly." 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  55 

quarter-inch  hole  through  each  of  these,  say  about  midway, 
and  then  securely  fasten  them  to  the  wall,  the  top  one  as 
far  above  the  one  beneath  as  the  door  is  long.  Drive  a 
headless  nail  into  the  bottom  of  the  door,  two  inches  from  the 
edge,  and  then  another  nail  through  the  hole  in  the  upper 
piece  into  the  door.  You  will  understand  it  will  not  be 
necessary  to  drive  either  nail  into  the  door  so  far  that  it 
cannot  readilv  be  withdrawn. 


AN  EYE  OX  THE  PRICES  OF  OTHERS. 

The  question  of  prices  is  one  that  worries  many  a 
lumberman.  To  get  a  profit,  yet  not  to  pitch  prices  so 
high  that  competitors  will  take  advantage  of  them,  is 
more  of  a  trick  than  a  beginner  might  imagine.  The  prices 
at  which  a  yard  man  sells  have  much  to  do  with  his  success. 
He  can  use  them  as  a  corkscrew  and  worm  into  the  good 
graces  of  the  public,  or  he  may  so  elevate  them  that  they 
may  knock  him  out  completely.  Xo  buyer  is  going  to  stand 
what  he  calls  exorbitant  prices  the  second  time  if  he  can 
help  himself,  and  he  generally  can.  In  a  spasm  of  confi- 
dence a  dealer  said  to  me  that  one  of  the  greatest  mistakes 
he  had  made  in  business  was  once  when  he  thought  he  had 
it  all  his  own  way  he  "tucked  on  the  price/'  as  he  expressed 
it.  "If  I  had  been  content  to  let  well  enough  alone,"  he  said, 
"I  could  have  had  one  of  the  finest  trades  any  man  ever  had, 
but  as  it  was  a  fellow  came  in,  cut  it  in  two,  and  gave  me  the 
smaller  part/* 

A  dealer  of  many  years"  experience  recently  saidv"I  have 
sold  lumber  under  a  good  many  conditions — in  a  pool  and 
out  of  it:  with  no  competition  nearer  than  ten  miles,  and 
with  three  competitors  within  that  number  of  blocks.  When 
it  is  put  up  between  the  dealers  and  there  is  a  mutual  list 
there  is  less  anxiety,  but  when  it  is  even*  man  for  himself, 
the  devil  catch  the  man  that  lags,  and  every  buyer  looking 
for  the  best  bargain  he  can  find — why,  that  keeps  a  man 


56  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

thinking.  I  have  seen  the  time  when  I  would  have  given  a 
man  $50  if  he  could  have  told  me  the  prices  my  competitors 
were  getting.  There  is  nothing  like  getting  in  under  the 
skin  of  your  competitors  in  prices.  We  do  not  often  pity 
our  competitors,  but  I  once  had  one  that  I  did  actually  pity. 
I  like  to  see  a  man  have  some  chance  for  his  life,  and  he  had 
none.  There  was  not  much  merchant  to  him.  He  inherited 
a  little  money  and  then  set  up  bigger  than  life  in  the  lumber 
business.  All  he  knew  about  buying  was  to  pay  such  prices 
as  anybody  might  ask  him.  It  was  not  unusual  for  me  to 
buy  for  from  $i  to  $4  under  him,  and  then  to  see  him  floun- 
der around  trying  to  do  me  up  was  both  amusing  and  piti- 
able. He  didn't  appear  to  know  that  I  had  a  codfish  hook 
right  in  his  gills  all  the  time.  Depend  on  good  buying?  I 
should  say  I  do.  You  have  said  a  good  deal  about  buying 
lumber  worth  the  money,  and  for  the  good  of  the  new  re- 
tailer you  can't  harp  on  that  string  too  much.  The  right 
kind  of  buying  is  the  keystone  that  holds  the  arch  of  success 
in  place.  I  believe  there  are  more  slobber  heel  buyers  in  the 
lumber  business  than  in  any  other  line.  The  manufacturers 
try  to  pull  the  wool  over  their  eyes.  They  make  a  combina- 
tion list,  put  up  a  bold  front  and  say,  'Nobody  breaks 
through  this  list !'  Why,  the  very  fact  that  the  list  is  pub- 
lished is  ninety-nine  times  in  a  hundred  proof  that  some- 
body does  break  through  it.  You  know  as  well  as  I  do  that 
not  once  in  a  hundred  times  does  a  list  represent  minimum 
prices.  I  have  seen  lists  when  it  was  impossible  to  get 
under  them,  but  it  was  when  lumber  was  on  the  jump  and 
everybody  was  taking  off  his  hat  to  Old  Prosperity.  That 
doesn't  come  our  way  three  times  in  a  lifetime,  though. 

"In  my  opinion  there  are  dealers  who  at  times  make 
mistakes  in  setting  too  high  a  price  on  those  goods  which 
it  is  generally  supposed  should  pay  a  round  profit.  I  have 
in  mind  a  case  of  that  kind.  A  man  in  this  town  was  reor- 
ganizing the  front  of  his  house  a  little  and  wanted  a  door. 
He  came  in,  pointed  out  the  door  he  wanted,  and  from  the 
readiness  with  which  he  did  it  I  felt  convinced  he  had  seen 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


57 


the  same  door  at  the  other  place,  and  I  happened  to  know 
that  at  that  place  they  were  selling  the  door  for  $375. 

"  'What  is  the  price  of  that  door  ?'  he  asked. 

"  Two  and  a  half,'  I  said. 

"  'How  much  ?'  he  asked,  as  though  he  hadn't  under- 
stood me. 

"  Two  and  a  half/  I 'said  again.  Then  he  couldn't  hold 
in  any  longer.  Two  and  a  half!  Why,  So-and-so  asked  me 
$3-75  f°r  tnat  identical  door.' 

"*'Is  it  possible?'  I  said.  'Well,  I  would  be  glad  to  sell 
you  all  I  have  got  for  $2.50  each/ 

"Don't  you  see  that  right  there  in  that  little  deal  I  gave 
my  dear  brother  dealer  a  blank  black  eye  ?  I  set  that  man  to 


"What  is  the  price  of  that  door? 


thinking  that  my  competitor  wasn't  in  it  when  it  came  to 
prices.  If  to  start  with  I  had  told  him  the  price  of  the  door 
was  $3.75  and  had  then  dropped  to  $2.50  it  wouldn't  have 
done.  That  wouldn't  have  had  the  right  effect.  What  I 
was  after  was  to  lead  the  man  to  think  that  right  along  as  a 
steady  diet  I  was  knocking  the  spots  off  the  other  dealer  in 
prices.  Now,  the  next  time  that  man  wanted  anything  in 
the  lumber  line  where  would  he  naturally  go?  Could  you 


58  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

have  driven  him  over  to  the  other  place?  Not  with  two 
clubs.  Within  two  months  he  built  an  immense  barn  out  on 
his  farm,  and  I  felt  sure  from  the  way  he  ordered  the  lum- 
ber that  nobody  else  had  had  a  chance  at  it.  He  drove  up 
in  front  of  the  office,  informed  me  what  he  was  going  to  do, 
said  he  supposed  I  would  sell  him  the  lumber  right  and,  on 
being  assured  that  I  would,  said  that  the  coming  week  his 
man  on  the  farm  would  bring  me  in  a  memorandum  of  the 
lumber  wanted  and  would  begin  to  haul  the  material  out. 
That  was  all  the  talk  there  was  about  it.  His  horse  wasn't 
standing  in  front  of  my  office  three  minutes  by  the  watch. 
No  doubt  the  door  was  at  the  bottom  of  this  deal.  And  you 
bet  he  got  the  lumber  right,  too.  When  a  man  reposes  that 
confidence  in  me  if  I  didn't  treat  him  right  I  would  shoot 
myself.  This  little  deal  impressed  on  my  mind  the  policy  of 
not  overcharging  on  any  item.." 


POLITICS  IN  TRADE. 

The  assemblage  was  composed  of  a  yard  man  whose 
mustache  showed  years,  a  salesman  who  could  hot  get  out 
of  town  for  four  hours  and  your  humble'  servant.  You 
have  noticed  that  men  will  tire  of  talking  of.  the  same  thing 
for  any  great  length  of  time.  They  like  to  change  their 
gait  so  as  to  rest.  You  have  probably  seen  horses  do  this. 
It  was  a  trick  of  Goldsmith  Maid,  who  in  her  day  was  with- 
out a  peer  on  the  track.  Suddenly  she  would  break  into  a 
run  and  go  like  a  deer  until  she  was  rested,  when  she  would 
as  suddenly  drop  back  into  a  trot  without  having  lost  or 
gained  a  foot.  She  had  been  trained  to  do  it  and  showed 
herself  an  artist. 

A  man  cannot  think  consecutively  for  any  great  length 
of  time.  We  sometimes  hear  it  said  of  a  man  that  he  is  a 
great  thinker — that  he  is  all  the  time  thinking  about  some- 
thing— and  this  remark  leads  people  to  believe  that  this  man 
who  thinks  keeps  at  it  from  morning  till  night.  He  doesn't ; 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


59 


it  isn't  possible  for  a  man  to  do  it.  A  business  or  profes- 
sional man  may  sit  at  his  desk  all  day,  but  don't  let  it  enter 
your  mind  that  he  is  steadily  thinking  all  the  time;  that  is, 
that  he  is  doing  "heavy  thinking"  all  day  long.  He  thinks 
for  a  while,  and  then  his  thinking  apparatus  stops  and  rests. 
His  mind,  as  it  were,  becomes  blank  for  a  little  time.  He 
has  changed  his  gait,  you  see,  and  then  is  ready  to  go  on 
again.  If  a  man  imagines  that  his  thinker  is  tireless  let  him 
put  it  to  a  test.  There  is  only  one  way  to  do  this  that  I 
know  of,  and  that  is  to  write  or  dictate  original  matter.  If 


''Sawing  on  the  old  fiddle." 

he  does  that  you  know  his  mind  is  not  loafing,  for  if  he  does 
not  think  coherently,  logically,  does  not  choose  his  words 
well,  his  work  is  the  telltale  clock  that  denotes  it.  And  how 
long  do  you  think  that  even  a  disciplined  mind  can  do  that 
kind  of  thinking?  Three  hours — that  is  all.  I  don't  mean 
dictating  letters,  or  any  such  child's  play  as  that,  but  turn- 
ing out  great  thoughts  which  will  go  rumbling  down  the 
grooves  of  time.  It  is  recognized  in  newspaper  and  literary 
circles  that  after  a  man  has  done  exact,  close,  steady  mental 
work  for  three  hours  the  quality  of  the  work  will  begin  to 


60  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

deteriorate.  In  other  words  he  has  done  a  day's  work.  The 
world  at  large  does  not  understand  this.  Thus,  when  im- 
mediately following  breakfast  I  get  right  down  to  work  and 
quit  at  ten,  having  in  the  meantime  thrown  off  2,000  to  3,oo<; 
words  of  my  bright  stuff,  and  then  don  my  society  clothes 
and  lie  around  all  day,  lolling  on  the  porch  or  lawn,  capering 
with  the  boys  and  dog,  or  sawing  on  the  old  fiddle,  I  know 
I  have  neighbors  who  think  I  am  the  laziest  jackass  that  has 
ever  kicked  up  his  heels  among  them.  The  fact  is,  before 
they  were  fairly  astir  I  had  done  a  day's  work  that .  had 
drawn  on  my  physical  reserve  to  as  great  extent  as  would 
digging  a  ditch  from  7  in  the  morning  until  6  at  night. 

As  said,  the  three  of  us  had  talked  shop  until  we  had  tired 
of  it.  The  yard  man  had  told  us  some  of  his  old  tricks  and 
some  of  his  new  ones.  The  salesman  had  informed  us 
about  the  condition  of  stocks  at  headquarters  and  what  he 
thought  about  the  future  of  prices ;  and  between  them  it 
had  kept  me  busy  listening.  Of  a  sudden  the  yard  man 
switched  onto  politics,  and  we  discovered  that  we  were  three 
of  a  kind.  Then  the  salesman  had  occasion  to  remark  that 
in  his  opinion  it  did  a  man  in  trade  no  good  to  show  his 
hand  in  either  politics  or  religion.  "Saw  wood,"  said  he, 
"and  let  the  other  fellows  spout."  He  asked  me  if  I  didn't 
think  that  was  the  stuff.  I  cleared  my  throat  and  told  him 
that  I  regarded  it  as  my  great  American  privilege  to  enter- 
tain any  political  or  religious  belief  that  I  had  honestly  ar- 
rived at,  that  I  didn't  care  who  knew  it,  and  that  on  the 
other  hand  I  wanted  others  to  feel  no  concern  if  I  knew  their 
belief. 

"That's  me,"  safd  the  yard  man.  "I  once 'had  a  partner 
who  was  a  genuine  mouse.  It  would  distress  him  because 
I  would  go  out  and  hurrah  and  carry  a  torch  in  a  procession. 
He  thought  it  would  go  against  our  business.  I  don't  sup- 
pose it  lost  us  the  sale  of  a  foot  of  lumber,  but  even  if  it  did, 
when  I  can't  sell  lumber  except  by  prostituting  my  convic- 
tions I'll  quit  and  go  to  the  almshouse,  if  necessary." 

That    expressed   my   views    so   exactly   that  I  told  the 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  61 

gentlemen  I  would  treat  if  they  would  run  over  into  the 
next  state  with  me,  where  we  could  find  a  public  bar.  I 
said  to  them  it  was  against  my  principles  to  sneak  into  a 
drug  store ;  that  when  my  inner  nature  called  for  a  cocktail 
I  wanted  to  buy  it  legally,  and  if  there  were  those  who 
wanted  to  see  it  run  down  my  throat  they  were  as  welcome 


"Rattle  away  like  a  Kaffir  drummer." 

to  do  so  as  they  were  welcome  to  know  my  political  and 
religious  belief.  The  remark  seemed  to  strike  the  high  C 
note  of  the  salesman's  gamut.  He  slapped  me  on  the 
shoulder  and  then  sailed  red  hot  into  the  idea  of  doing 
away  with  saloons.  I  laughed  in  both  sleeves.  He  did  not 
think  it  was  good  policy  publicly  to  talk  politics,  but  when 
it  came  to  the  saloon  proposition  he  was  as  alert  as  a  weasel 
and  could  rattle  away  like  a  Kaffir  drummer.  That  is  the 
unreasonable,  lopsided  creature  the  most  of  us  are. 


62  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

WHERE  TO  GET  TRADE. 

I  boarded  the  train  with  a  yard  man  who  was  going 
twenty  miles  my  way;  on  the  car  we  were  so  fortunate  as 
to  find  another  retail  man,  so  we  turned  a  seat  and  made  a 
chatting,  happy  trio.  The  first  station  was  a  one-yard  burg, 
of  400  souls  perhaps,  and  the  conversation  led  up  to  the  sub- 
ject of  new  yards  in  new  towns.  We  especially  mentioned 
the  line  yard  concerns  which  have  followed  up  the  new  rail- 
roads, putting  in  a  yard  wherever  they  could.  "Let  them 
put  'em  in,"  remarked  one  of  the  yard  men. 

"I  don't  want  any  of  them  in  mine." 

"Nor  I,"  said  No.  2. 

"Because  why?"  I  asked,  as  the  train  fiend  shook  a 
basket  of  crackerjack  under  our  noses  to  tempt  us  to  buy. 

"For  the  reason,"  said  the  first  speaker,  "that  I  had 
rather  take  my  chances  in  a  bigger  town.  I  know  it  sounds 
all  right  to  talk  about  getting  into  a  new  town,  but  some- 
times the  sound  is  hollow.  I  don't  say  it  is  not  at  times  a 
good  place  to  be.  No  one  man  has  a  monopoly  of  getting 
into  a  new  town,  though,  and  others  are  liable  to  be  there  as 
soon  as  you  are.  That  is  generally  the  trouble,  it  is  over- 
done. One  yard  in  a  little  new  town  may  be  all  right,  two 
don't  go  so  well,  and  three  are  worse  yet.  The  spurt  trade 
in  a  lively  new  town  is  all  right,  but  I  have  never  seen  the 
time  when  there  were  not  plenty  of  dealers  to  sell  the  lum- 
ber for  that  trade.  Then,  no  man  can  tell  whether  a  new 
town  will  ever  amount  to  a  hill  of  beans  or  not.  At  one  time 
somebody  thought  that  every  town  in  the  state  of  Iowa 
would  amount  to  something.  Take  it  along  this  road,  for 
instance  Let's  see ;  there  are  nine  towns  worth  talking 
about  in  a  distance  of  200  miles,  and  you  will  not  find  them 
stuck  in  much  thicker  than  that  on  any  road.  At  least  two 
in  three  new  towns  are  not  going  to  amount  to  any  great 
sum.  So  when  you  locate  in  a  new  town  you  stand  one 
chance  in  three  to  grow  up  with  a  pretty  decent  town. 

"Now  let  us  look  at  it  in  another  light.      The  dealer  is  a 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  63 

dandy  who  reaches  out  more  than  six  miles  for  trade.  The 
most  of  us  are  brought  up  short  by  the  time  we  have  got 
out  from  three  to  five  miles.  New  town  or  old  town,  it 
makes  little  difference  in  this  respect.  Of  course  the  man 
in  the  new  town,  supposing  there  is  only  one  yard,  has  the 
pull  on  the  country  trade  surrounding  him.  In  that  respect 
the  new-town  man  has  the  advantage  of  the  one  in  the  big- 
ger town.  But  now,  in  the  next  heat,  as  we  will  say,  seeing 
we  have  just  been  to  the  races,  you  will  see  that  the  new-- 
town dealer  loses  ground.  In  these  larger  towns  men- 
tioned along  the  line  you  would  probably  find  that  every 
yard  supplies  about  2,000  people  in  town,  and  also  does  its 
share  of  business  in  the  surrounding  territory.  I  should  say 
that  75  percent  of  the  lumber  sold  by  the  dealers  in  these 
towns  mentioned  does  not  cross  the  city  limits.  A  town  of 
2,000  people  would  be  called  a  good  one-yard  town, 
wouldn't  it?  I  do  not  know  where  the  town  of  that  size  is 
which  has  not  two  or  more  yards.  If  a  man  is  after  a 
decent  volume  of  trade  he  wants  to  pitch  his  tent  in  a  good 
sized  town.  The  larger  the  town  the  fewer  yards  in  pro- 
portion to  the  population  there  are,  too.  No,  if  I  expect 
trade  I  want  to  live  where  there  are  folks." 

Just  then  the  whistle  screeched,  and  the  yard  man  said  it 
was  his  stopping  place.  No.  2  got  off  the  train  at  the  next 
station,  and  I  was  left  alone  with  my  thoughts  and  the  dark- 
night. 

Depositing  my  big  feet  on  the  seat  recently  occupied  by 
my  traveling  companions,  I  pulled  my  hat  over  my  eyes  and 
tried  to  digest  the  logic  that  had  been  poured  into  me  by  the 
yard  man.  As  regards  the  volume  of  trade  in  the  larger 
town  there  can  be  no  question ;  but  a  big  volume  of  trade  is 
not  everything.  In  a  town  of  35,000  inhabitants  a  yard 
man  said  to  me,  "It  costs  so  like  thunder  to  do  business 
here!"  He  keeps  several  teams,  three  men  in  the  yard,  a 
bookkeeper,  a  pretty  girl  stenographer  and  a  big  boy  who 
collects  and  runs  on  errands.  He  rents  his  yard,  and  the  price 
must  be  a  round  one  as  it  is  on  valuable  ground.  Then. 


64  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

undoubtedly,  his  taxes  are  enough  to  make  a  man's  hair 
stand  on  end.  Outside  of  all  these  specified  expenses  the 
incidentals  which  must  be  met  in  such  a  business  are  enough 
to  make  a  book.  It  is  strive  and  struggle  with  this  man — 
you  can  smell  it  in  the  atmosphere  before  you  have  been  on 
the  premises  thirty  minutes. 

As  against  this  yard  business  that  in  a  little  town  of  500 
people  may  be  mentioned.  This  man  is  not  doing  a  big 
trade,  and  to  make  fair  money,  in  slang  language,  he  doesn't 
have  to.  He  owns  the  land  on  which  his  yard  is  located 
which  is  worth,  possibly  $400,  and  his  office  and  shed  cost 
him  say  $300  more.  The  interest  on  $700  is  not  large — at 
the  rate  at  which  money  can  be  had  these  days  it  would 
amount  to  less  than  $50.  Taxes  cut  no  great  figure.  When 
business  is  at  its  best,  or  when  there  are  cars  to  be  unloaded, 
a  man  is  hired  for  a  few  days  at  a  time.  With  this  excep- 
tion no  money  goes  for  labor,  the  man  and  his  wife  doing 
the  work.  The  wife  puts  in  a  few  hours  daily,  keeping  the 
books,  and  at  the  same  time  keeping  her  husband  company 
so  he  will  not  get  lonesome.  You  might  object  to  this ;  you 
might  want  your  wife  interested  head  over  heels  in  social 
functions,  cutting  a  swell.  That,  however,  is  a  matter  of 
taste.  This  man's  wife  is  as  good  as  anybody's  wife;  she 
has  no  babies  at  home  to  take  care  of,  and  may  as  wrell  be 
helping  her  husband  in  his  business  as  working  flowers," 
birds  and  poodle  dogs  in  crewel  at  home  or  attending  live 
poodle  dogs.  No  man  or  woman  was  ever  yet  lowered  in 
the  estimation  of  sensible  people  by  doing  any  work  that  is 
necessary  to  be  done. 

This  man  seemed  so  proud  of  the  way  he  is  getting 
along  that  he  opened  his  books  to  me,  and  while  I  was  read- 
ing the  results  his  wife  stood  by  me  with  a  smile  of  satis- 
faction on  her  face.  Of  course  it  would  not  have  been  in 
good  form  for  me  to  slap  her  on  the  back,  and  say,  "Good 
for  you,  Maria !"  but  honestly  I  felt  like  doing  it,  and  seeing 
they  are  young  people,  and  that  years  are  beginning  to  ripen 
my  raven  locks  by  turning  them  blonde,  I  took  the  liberty  to 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


65 


say  to  them  that  they  were  getting  along  first  rate.  And 
then  we  went  up  to  the  house  and  had  one  of  the  nicest  sup- 
pers you  ever  saw — potatoes  in  cream,  toast,  iced  tea,  toma- 
toes, canned  salmon  on  dishes  that  shone  and  on  linen  that 
was  whiter  than  my  shirt  front.  After  supper  the  yard  mun 
and  his  wife,  accompanied  by  the  organ,  sang  some  good 
old  hymns,  and  I  felt  so  happy  that  I  fell  in  to  help  them 
along,  and  made  about  the  worst  discord  you  ever  listened 
to.  They  said  it  had  done  them  good — my  coming — and  I 


"I  walked  down  the  street  between  them." 

told  them  it  had  done  me  good.  When  it  came  train  time 
they  went  to  see  me  off,  and  as  in  a  fatherly  way  I  walked 
down  the  street  between  them  the  loungers  out  in  front  of 
the  stores  stared  as  though  I  might  be  a  superannuated 
preacher  who  was  being  showed  the  town  by  some  of  his 
old  flock. 

This  yard  man  does  not  owe  a  cent  on  his  stock,  he 
discounts  every  bill  and  is  clearing  a  nice  amount  yearly.  In 
a  few  years,  if  he  keeps  on  at  this  rate,  he  will  be  well  fixed 
— that  is,  for  his  town.  He  could  not  go  into  Chicago  and 


66  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

support  a  marble  front  on  the  boulevard  and  pay  $100  each 
for  his  wife's  dresses — and  let  us  right  here  in  concert  thank 
the  Lord  that  we  are  not  obliged  to  do  these  things.  And 
over  and  above  all,  this  yard  man  is  evidently  happy ;  and 
happiness  is  the  ultimatum  of  life.  No  matter  how  much 
money  we  may  scrape  together,  or  how  many  positions  of 
alleged  honor  we  may  fill,  if  happiness  is  lacking  in  reality 
we  are  as  a  stork  in  a  desert,  with  the  sand  drifting  into  our 
eyes,  and  gasping  for  a  breath  of  fresh  air. 

As  the  train  was  whirling  along  in  the  moonlight  past 
the  big  cornfields,  I  thought  of  these  two  cases — the  yard 
man  in  the-lbig  town  and  the  other  in  the  little  town.  They 
are  of  course  extremes,  but  to  arrive  at  a  mean  it  is  always 
necessary  to  consider  extremes.  If  at  that  moment  I  could 
have  stepped  into  the  shoes  of  the  yard  man  in  the  big  town, 
with  his  large  expense  account,  with  the  hottest  kind  of 
competition  beating  him  hither  and  thither,  not  really  know- 
ing from  one  month  to  another  where  he  is ;  or  into  the 
shoes  of  the  man  in  the  little  burg  who  is  doing  a  safe  and 
profitable  business,  and  who  is  doing  it  with  so  little  friction 
that  the  scowl  does  not  come  to  his  brow,  nor  the  seams  to 
his  forehead,  I  felt  as  the  drummer  asked  me  if  that  seat  was 
engaged  and  slid  in  by  my  side  that  I  would  ask  the  little 
town  man  to  take  off  his  shoes  that  I  might  put  them  on. 

When  the  town  of  my  destination  had  been  called,  the 
old  bus  had  trundled  me  to  the  hotel  and  I  had  crept  into 
my  little  bed  this  thought  of  big  and  little  town  dealers  still 
held  the  fort.  Then,  as  the  stars  twinkled  through  the  open 
window,  it  seemed  all  right  after  all.  There  are  those  who 
prefer  large  towns  in  which  to  do  business,  and  they  can 
have  them ;  others  prefer  small  towns,  and  they  can  follow 
their  bent.  What  if  all  preferred  large  towns,  or  small 
ones?  The  lumber  business  would  be  so  unbalanced  that  in 
great  sections  there  would  be  a  scarcity  of  building  material 
and  in  others  a  surplus.  There  would  be  so  many  yards  in 
every  town  of  much  size  that  all  of  them  would  be  on  the 
ragged  edge.  This  variety  of  taste  is  a  saving  grace. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  67 

Some  powerful,  unseen  hand  has  fixed  the  thing  better  than 
all  of  us  combined  could  fix  it  in  a  million  years.  When 
we  spread  a  piece  of  bread  with  butter  we  want  it  done 
evenly.  It  does  not  answer  to  have  all  the  butter  in  a  lump 
on  one  side  of  the  bread.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  great  hand 
has  spread  humanity  over  the  face  of  the  earth  as  we  would 
have  the  butter  spread  on  our  bread.  Every  pore  is  filled. 
In  the  lumber  world  there  are  the  logger,  manufacturer, 
wholesale  man  and  retail  man,  one  nearly  balancing  the 
other. 

As  sleep  was  sealing  my  eyelids,  as  the  poet  so  beauti- 
fully puts  it,  are  you  of  the  opinion  that  my  last  thought 
was  of  this  great  and  wise  plan  which  so  redounds  to 
the  benefit  of  us  all?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  My  last  conscious 
thought  was  that  I  hoped  the  hotel  man  would  set  up  a 
tender  steak  and  good  cup  of  coffee  for  breakfast.  So  long 
as  we  are  earthy  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  get  away  from 
the  earth ;  and  I  think  not  manv  of  us  want  to. 


THINGS  WHICH  EXASPERATE  MUST  BE 
EXPECTED. 

Like  the  gentleman  that  he  is,  the  yard  man  went  at 
it  like  a  hired  man  to  show  and  tell  me  everything  he  could. 
We  went  into  the  yard  and  talked  about  this  and  that,  but 
there  seemed  to  be  no  handle  to  get  hold  of.  If  all  the  yard 
men  conducted  their  business  exactly  alike  my  occupation 
would  be  gone  and  I  should  have  to  go  to  work  for  a  living. 
I  could  discover  nothing  worth  talking  about  around  these 
premises.  It  was  simply  a  nicely  kept  yard,  with  no  em- 
phasized features. 

If  I  had  gone  away  from  this  yard  and  seen  nothing  I 
thought  was  worth  mentioning  the  yard  man  might  have 
felt  hurt.  He  might  have  said,  "Darn  him,  he  came  here  to 
see  me;  I  showed  him  all  I  had,  and  then  he  didn't  say  a 
word  about  it !"  Moreover,  he  treated  me  as  well  as  one 


68 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


fellow  can  treat  another.  He  sent  his  man  over  to  the 
store  to  get  some  cigars,  and  told  him  to  get  "good  ones," 
too.  Then  he  insisted  that  I  should  not  pay  for  my  dinner 
at  the  hotel.  He  said  it  would  be  a  great  idea  for  me  to 
come  twenty-five  miles  to  see  him,  and  then  pay  for  my 
grub!  "You  wouldn't  let  me  do  that,  would  you?"  he  asked, 
and  of  course  I  told  him  no  and  that  settled  it.  He  hailed 


"He  hailed  the  'bus  man." 

the  'busman  and  told  him  to  call  right  at  his  office  for  me. 
You  can't  help  liking  such  a  man.  If  he  will  come  and 
see  me  he  shall  have  the  softest  bed  in  the  house  if  I  have 
to  sleep  with  my  dog  under  the  front  steps  and  help  to 
watch  burglars. 

The  cold  fact  is  there  is  nothing  of  public  interest  that 
can  be  said  about  many  of  the  yard  men  and  their  yards. 
Don't  you  know  that  there  are  no  knobs  on  some  men  ?  The 
other  day  I  had  a  chat  of  two  hours  with  an  old  yard  man 
who  is  having  a  good  trade,  has  got  rich,  yet  the  point  of 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  69 

my  little  2-cent  pencil  was  not  worn  off  to  an  infinitesimal 
degree  writing  down  a  thing  he  said.  He  is  not  to  blame 
for  it,  either.  He  didn't  happen  to  let  out  what  was  wanted 
— and  I  couldn't  drag  it  out  of  him.  Sometimes  I  visit  all 
the  yards  in  a  town  and  go  away  as  empty  as  I  came,  and 
no  record  is  made  thereof.  I  am  not  complaining,  for  these 
things  are,  and  whatever  is  can't  be  helped.  Almost  as  by 
accident  I  ran  into  a  lumber  office  not  long  ago  and  the  oc- 
cupant of  it  kept  me  hustling  mentally,  arranging  and  re- 
membering the  good  things  he  said.  There  were  knobs  all 
over  him.  In  less  than  thirty  minutes  he  had  said  a  dozen 
things  that  I  was  convinced  would  be  of  interest  to  50,000 
readers.  You  see  I  had  struck  a  "good  hole,"  as  we  used  to 
say  when  as  boys  we  went  a-fishing. 

This  yard  man  had  pulled  open  all  the  big  faucets,  and 
then  toward  the  last  he  incidentally  opened  a  little  one,  as 
he  supposed,  yet  in  my  opinion,  it  was  the  biggest  of  them 
all. 

"Some  dealers,"  said  he,  "will  sell  a  bill  to  a  contractor, 
expecting  that  everything  will  go  without  friction.  There 
will  be  no  extra  carting,  no  dissatisfaction,  no  knock  off  on 
this  or  that,  they  think,  and  they  make  their  figures  accord- 
ingly. To  start  with,  you  would  think  they  were  going  to 
shoot  chutes  that  were  thoroughly  oiled  and  the  lower  end 
of  which  would  be  easily  reached  by  gravity.  Then  actual 
trade  life  is  experienced  and  the  moonshine  fades  away.  The 
contractor  becomes  a  little  unreasonable  in  some  things  per- 
haps, and  the  lumberman  loses  his  good  temper.  The  end 
is  hard  feelings,  and  possibly  an  open  break.  Xow  herein 
is  where  I  blame  the  lumberman :  He  goes  at  the  business 
as  though  he  were  a  dreamer.  He  ought  to  anticipate  the 
annoyances  and  when  they  come  meet  them  philosophically. 
I  have  a  house  bill  on  hand  now.  At  first  it  was  the  inten- 
tion to  cover  with  the  ordinary  width  clapboards,  but  the 
other  morning  the  contractor  came  in  and  said  the  builder 
had  changed  his  plans  and  wanted  to  cover  with  narrow 
stuff.  The  clapboards  were  already  on  the  ground  and  to 


70  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

cart  them  back  was  work  and  some  risk,  for  if  you  can  cart 
clapboards  all  around  the  country  without  now  and  then 
damaging  a  board  I  have  not  yet  found  it  out.  I  might  have 
gone  and  hired  a  hall  and  delivered  a  lecture  on  'People 
Who  Don't  Know  What  They  Want!'  What  good  would 
it  have  done?  Wouldn't  it  have  done  harm?  The  con- 
tractor was  no  more  to  blame  than  I  was.  I  told  him  we 
had  got  to  accommodate  our  friends,  and  the  narrow  stuff 
went  over  and  the  other  came  back. 

"Have  you  ever  successfully  done  many  jobs  which 
didn't  take  more  work  than  you  thought  they  would  when 
you  started  in?  That  is  the  basis  we  should  all  start  out 
on.  Lay  out  for  the  extra  work  and  tribulations  before- 
hand, and  then  if  they  don't  come  we  can  count  ourselves  so 
much  ahead." 

I  felt  like  saying,  "Old  man,  your  head  is  plumb  there," 
but  instead  I  tumbled  into  the  old  'bus  after  the  driver  had 
held  the  door  open  fully  three  minutes  for  me,  to  meet  the 
cold  gaze  of  a  woman  in  spectacles  who  no  doubt  thought  I 
was  as  slow  as  syrup  in  January. 


A    LABOR    SAVER. 

The  day  has  gone  by  when  it  is  any  credit  to  a  man  to 
want  to  lift  his  liver  out.  Some  of  our  forefathers  defined 
work  as  severe  physical  effort,  and  they  thought  that  any 
man  who  did  not  indulge  in  this  particular  kind  of  effort 
was  a  sort  of  dewdrop  that  the  sun  of  prosperity  ought  to 
dissipate.  The  great  majority  of  farmers  were  of  this 
opinion,  but  the  world  is  moving  all  the  time.  The  farmers 
these  days,  in  this  section  of  the  country,  are  no  more  anx- 
ious to  strain  their  muscles  than  are  the  rest  of  us.  They 
want  machinery  to  do  the  hard  work.  In  labor  saving  ap- 
pliances the  agricultural  world  is  rich.  The  farmer  can 
ride  the  plow,  cultivator,  mower  and  harvester.  He  can 
load  his  hay  by  machinery,  and  horse  power  elevates  it  to  the 


REALM  -OF  THE  RETAILER.  71 

stack  or  into  the  barn.  For  one  I  am  glad  to  see  this.  The 
coming  generations  of  farmers  will  be  better  preserved  than 
their  ancestors  were.  Their  knuckles  will  be  less  promi- 
nent and  their  shoulders  will  be  less  stooped.  They  will  feel 
themselves  better  men,  for  it  is  only  when  we  are  in  har- 
mony with  nature  that  we  are  fully  aware  of  our  high  es- 
tate. When  our  bodies  or  minds  are  out  of  shape  we  feel 
our  belittlement.  If  any  man  thinks  it  is  a  credit  to  him  to 
lift  and  tug  until  the  human  form  divine  is  misshapen,  or 
to  mold  his  mind  into  that  shape  dictated  by  this  or  that 
creed  or  party  until  he  can  see  only  in  that  one  direction  he 
is  making  a  huge  mistake.  The  march  of  the  soul  of  man 


**The    farmer   can  ride  the  plow." 

is  ever  onward,  and  the  more  in  that  onward  course  it 
branches  off  into  the  paths  of  error  the  more  ground  it  will 
Have  to  retrace.  I  saw  a  thousand  men  in  a  penitentiary, 
and  the  thought  that  came  to  me  was  that  all  these  men  were 
retracing  their  steps ;  they  had  got  into  the  byway,  and  must 
get  back  on  to  the  great  highway  that  leads  toward  the 
brilliant  sun  of  perfection.  And  do  not  let  us  dope  our 
souls  with  the  thought,  beloved,  that  the  steps  retraced  are 
those  of  the  convict  only.  The  laws  of  the  Almighty  do  not 
recognize  the  name  of  convict.  The  man,  convict  or  not, 
who  violates  them  will  be  gone  after  as  with  a  red-hot  poker. 
I  want  all  of  us  to  preserve  our  youth.  Personally  I  feel 
so  elastic  this  morning  it  would  be  a  treat  to  go  out  and 
chase  bumblebees.  Let's  aim  to  live  in  concert  in  this  regard. 


72  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

and  if  we  do  so,  we  must  not  do  violence  to  that  wonder- 
ful house  in  which  we  live.     The  ultimatum  to  be  reached 
in  this  world  is  happiness,  and  health  is  one  of  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  happiness.     In  our  abnormal  moments  we 
think  that  money  or  power  is  the  great  object  in  life,  but 
we  are  thinking  .wild.    There  is  no  millionaire  in  this  coun- 
try or  out  of  it,  no  ruler  of  any  government,  who  today  is 
getting  so  much  out  of  life  as  is  that  little  four-year-old, 
barefoot  boy  out  there  in  front  of  my  house  whose  very  ex- 
istence is  so  perfect  that  it  is  a  poem.    By  and  by  that  per- 
fect little  poem  will  become  a  jagged  piece  of  common  prose. 
That  beautiful  naturalness -that  becomes  him  so  well  will 
have  disappeared.    He  will  imbibe  the  caste  idea  of  society 
and  will  be  one  who  will  be  looked  down  upon  or  who  will 
look  down  upon  others.     He  will  absorb  absurd  religious 
notions.    In  business  he  will  pitch  in  with  the  idea  of  doing 
up  somebody.     If  he  is  made  of  fine  material  he  will  feel 
ashamed  of -himself  every  twenty- four  hours  of  his  life.    If 
he  becomes  rici\he  will.find  it  wjll  not  add  to  his  happiness, 
and  if  he 'is  elected  state  senator  or  appointed  postmaster 
it  will  fill  no  aching  void  in  his  breast.    He  will  decide  that 
the  goal  is  happiness,  and  that  only  a  natural  life  and  honest 
purpose  can  bring  it.    If  we  are  capable  of  analyzing  we  find 
out  these  things  as  years  come  to  us. 

I  saw  a  yard  man  putting  some  heavy  timbers  in  his  shed. 
He  .tugged  and  wiggled  until  his  face  was  red  as  a  beet,  and 
the  perspiration  dropped  from  his  nose.  His  man  was  strug- 
gling with  him.  Then  I  thought  of  a  little  appliance  I  saw 
in  a  Wisconsin  yard — simply  a  wooden  roller,  maybe  2\ 
inches  in  diameter  and  15  inches  long.  You  will  understand 
it  from  the  accompanying  diagram. 

The  bottom  of  the  appliance  is  a  plank,  say  eight  inches 
wide,  with  spikes  in  it,  so  that  when  it  is  set  down  it  will 
stay.  Now  we  will  say  you  are  piling  timber  in  your  shed. 
To  start  with  you  can  lay  a  plank  down  for  a  road  bed,  put 
down  not  far  from  the  end  nearest  you  one  of  these  little 
giant,  rollers,  start  your  timber  on  it,  about  midway  put 


.REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  73 

down  another  roller  and  shove  the  timber  where  it  is  wanted. 
The  next  time  you  place  the  rollers  on  the  stick  of  timber 
already  in  place  and  shove  in  timber  No.  2.  Keep  operat- 
ing like  this  and  the  first  you  will  know  all  your  timber  will 


be  stored.  You  can  wear  your  meeting  shirt  and  do  this 
kind  of  work.  When  loading  timber  you  can  use  these 
rollers  to  advantage. 

You  are  under  no  obligations  to  pay  any  attention  to  the 
dimensions  here  given.  You  can  arrange  those  to  fit  the 
case.  One  lumberman  told  me  he  thought  he  would  have 
longer  rollers  of  this  kind  arranged  in  front  of  the  bins  of 
his  shed  so  as  to  run  the  lumber  over  them  when  loading 
on  the  wagon.  Now  this  is  all  simple  enough,  and  possibly 
you  may  have  thought  it  out  yourself,  but  the  point  is,  you 
don't  adopt  it.  One  drawback  is  that  the  cost  is  so  small. 
If  an  agent  who  could  talk  like  greased  lightning  should 
come  along  with  some  appliance  that  would  do  the  work  of 
these  rollers  and  want  about  $10  for  it  I  expect  that  some  of 
you  would  bite. 

It  won't  do  to  let  the  farmer,  with  his  facilities  for  avoid- 
ing manual  labor  get  ahead  of  us.  Our  muscle  is  as  precious 
as  his. 


SELLING  FOR  CASH. 

It  is  generally  thought  that  the  ideal  way  of  selling 
goods  is  for  cash,  but  as  there  are  people  who  disagree  with 
everybody  else  so  there  are  tradesmen  who  regard  the 
cash  business  man  as  a  chump.  A  pioneer  yard  man  said 
he  would  have  felt  downhearted  if  on  coming  west  he  had 
been  obliged  to  sell  for  cash. 


74  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

"Why,"  said  he,  "by  selling  on  time  I  could  get  all  sorts 
of  profits.  Then  I  gave  all  sorts  of  time,  and  got  from  18 
to  24  percent  for  the  accommodation.  Thirty  percent  on 
lumber  and  20  percent  interest,  bringing  me  50  percent  a 
year  on  my  money,  wasn't  bad  as  I  looked  at  it.  Of  course 
if  it  ran  more  than  a  year  the  profit  was  less." 

Such  a  method,  however,  implies  that  a  man  has  plenty 
of  money  to  operate  with.  In  other  lines  I  have  known 
merchants  who  claimed  that  a  credit  business  was  the 
moneymaker ;  that  time  payments  would  warrant  higher 
prices  and  a  larger  volume  of  sales.  As  said,  however,  the 
most  of  us  would  like  to  do  business  on  a  cash  basis.  When 
we  exchange  a  day's  work,  a  load  of  corn,  a  horse,  or  a 
thousand  feet  of  lumber  for  money  we  want  the  money 
when  the  goods  are  delivered.  There  is  sound  commercial 
sense  in  that,  though  were  it  carried  out  to  the  letter  I  don't 
know  where  the  immense  army  of  bookkeepers  would  look 
for  a  living,  and  possibly  some  of  us,  if  we  could  go  to  bed 
and  sleep  instead  of  worrying  over  our  credits,  would  live 
to  such  an  age  that  we  would  become  nuisances. 

"I  notice  that  an  Illinois  dealer  writes  that  he  is  selling 
lumber  for  cash,"  said  a  yard  man.  "If  I  did  not  have  faith 
that  the  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  abides  in  my  fel- 
low dealers  I  should  think  it  was  a  fairy  tale.  It  is  past  my 
comprehension  how  any  man  can  sell  lumber  for  cash.  And 
when  I  say  cash  I  mean  cash — spot  cash — no  halfway  busi- 
ness about  it.  I  know  that  in  some  lines  ten  or  thirty  days 
is  called  cash,  but  if  I  should  say  that  I  sell  lumber  for  cash 
from  my  retail  yard  I  should  mean  that  I  had  the  money  in 
hand  before  the  lumber  left  my  possession.  That,  in  a  retail 
business,  is  what  cash  means.  I  am  glad  if  the  Illinois 
dealer  can  sell  his  stuff  for  cash,  but  I  would  bet  $1,000 
that  I  couldn't  do  it  without  knocking  my  trade  galley 
west." 

Then  he  actually  warmed  up  to  the  subject.  "If  I  were 
building  a  house  and  a  lumber  dealer  should  insist  that  I 
pay  in  advance  for  every  load  of  lumber  and  every  item 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


75 


that  left  his  yard  I'll  be  blowed  if  I  would  buy  it  of  him  at 
all.  Last  week  my  wife  was  sick,  and  the  doctor  was  there 
nearly  every  day.  Suppose  that  he  insisted  that  he  be  paid 
every  time  before  he  went  away?  Suppose  when  he  was 
going  to  send  up  some  medicine  by  one  oi  the  children  he 
should  tell  me  to  send  down  a  quarter  or  half  dollar  before 
it  would  come  ?  Remember,  I  am  talking  about  myself ;  I 
am  perfectly  able  to  pay  a  doctor's  bill,  and  when  discussing 
this  cash  lumber  business  it  is  supposed  that  we  are  talking 


"In  a  crowd  by  the  diamond." 

about  men  who  are  both  able  and  willing  to  pay  for  all  the 
lumber  they  may  order.  No,  it  won't  do.  Look  out  that  we 
put  our  lumber  where  we  will  get  our  pay  for  it,  and  then 
decently  treat  the  men  who  buy  it." 

In  a  crowd  by  the  diamond,  watching  the  whirling  and 
batting  of  the  sphere,  I  met  one  of  the  most  prominent  deal- 
ers in  the  west.  When  there  was  a  lull  I  asked  this  dealer 
what  he  thought  about  selling  lumber  for  cash  and,  resting 
one  foot  on  a  carriage  pole,  he  said  it  would  be  a  fine  thing 
if  it  could  be  done.  Offhand  I  should  guess  that  this  man 


76  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

carries  a  stock  worth  $20,000,  and  he  says  that  his  out- 
standing accounts  equal  the  value  of  his  stock  on  hand. 

"I  insist  on  monthly  settlements,"  said  he.  "I  get  as 
near  cash  as  that.  I  Once  started  in  with  $6,000  and  sold 
$65,000  worth  of  lumber  in  the  year,  and  to  do  that  it  must 
be  necessary  for  a  man  to  look  out  for  short  credits.  I  do 
not  see  how  I  could  do  a  cash  business.  A  large  share  of 
my  town  orders  come  by  telephone,  and  I  couldn't  hold 
them  and  send  out  and  collect  in  advance.  In  a  new  coun- 
try, where  lumber  is  hauled  a  long  distance,  where  people 
are  strangers  and  everybody  is  expected  to  pay  for  what 
he  gets,  I  can  understand  how  lumber  may  be  sold  for  cash." 

"Don't  believe  it  can  be  done,"  laconically  said  a  dealer. 
Then  he  went  to  talking  about  the  pacer  Fitzsimmons,  that 
we  had  just  seen  in  a  race,  as  though  it  would  be  a  waste 
of  breath  to  discuss  the  selling  for  cash  proposition. 

"I  doubt  the  practicability  of  it,"  said  another  dealer. 
"How  near  a  man  would  come  to  it  would  depend  on  his 
individuality  and  the  character  of  his  trade.  My  uncle" 
— naming  a  leading  yard  man — "insists  on  settlements  every 
six  months,  and  on  such  a  basis  the  accounts  would  average 
three  months  old.  That  I  call  good.  Talking  about  cash, 
we  will  take  a  house  bill,  for  instance.  A  certain  amount 
of  dimension  goes  out,  and  a  portion  of  it  may  come  back. 
Shingles  are  taken  to  the  job  two  or  three  times,  maybe,  and 
finally  some  of  them  are  returned.  I  can  hardly  see  how 
you  are  going  to  make  it  a  cash  deal.  If  a  dealer  says  to 
a  builder*  that  he  would  require  a  payment  when,  say,  half 
of  the  material  is  delivered,  that  is  sensible  and  all  right, 
but  at  the  same  time  that  is  a  long  way  from  the  cash  prop- 
osition." 

"Not  under  the  present  conditions,"  said  a  line  yard 
manager.  "One  of  our  yards  is  practically  selling  for  cash, 
by  offering  a  discount  of  $2  a  thousand  as  an  inducement. 
There  will  come  a  time,  I  think,  when  it  will  be  possible  to 
sell  for  nearly  cash.  But  when  that  time  comes  trade  will 
be  conducted  differently  from  what  it  is  now.  I  look  for 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  77 

yards  carrying  stocks  worth  $25,000  to  take  the  places  of 
the  many  small  ones  we  have  now.  If  that  time  shall  come, 
with  the  right  kind  of  understanding  locally  between  the 
dealers  it  would  be  possible  to  sell  practically  for  cash. 
When  that  time  arrives  lumber  will  not  go  out  in  driblets 
as  it  does  now  to  a  job." 

I  could  quote  a  dozen  more  opinions  on  the  subject,  but 
it  would  be  filling  space  for  naught,  as  really  they  would 
cover  the  ground  already  gone  over.  I  should  feel  safe  to 
guarantee  that  a  thorough  canvass  of  the  country  would  not 
disclose  a  half  dozen  dealers  who  would  say  that  it  is  prac- 
ticable to  sell  lumber  for  strictly  cash.  A  dealer  put  a 
good  deal  of  meat  into  the  statement:  "I  shouldn't  expect 
a  man  who  is  building  a  house  to  stand  around  my  office 
all  the  time  with  his  weazle  drawn  simply  to  accommodate 
my  notion  as  to  terms  of  payment." 


HANDLING  HARDWARE. 

The  yard  man  said  that  when  he  was  doing  business  in 
Kansas  he  sold  hardware  in  connection  with  lumber,  and 
that  he  went  into  it  as  a  defensive  measure,  namely,  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  even  with  the  regular  hardware  dealers 
who  insisted  on  selling  screen  doors  and  windows  and 
building  paper,  and  furthermore  that  the  scheme  carried. 
"And  I  believe  in  the  same  way  we  could  stop  them  from 
sucking  eggs  here !"  he  remarked,  speaking  of  the  town  in 
which  he  is  now  doing  business. 

"How  did  you  like  the  hardware  deal?"  he  was  asked. 

Then  he  stated  his  objections  to  it.  He  said  to  start 
with  it  took  extra  help  when  hardware  was  handled.  A 
man  may  be  out  in  the  yard,  busy  selling  a  bill,  somebody 
will  want  a  pound  or  two  of  nails,  and  if  it  is  your  business 
to  sell  nails  you  must  weigh  out  that  pound  or  two  with  all 
the  promptness  that  you  would  go  out  to  throw  a  barrel  of 
lime  into  a  customer's  wagon.  Then  no  tasty  bookkeeper 


78  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

wants  to  transfer  the  smut  of  the  nails  to  his  books.     Nails 
were  sold  as  leaders,  but  other  articles  paid  well. 

As  you  have  observed,  this  man's  chief  objection  to  han- 
dling hardware  is  that  extra  help  is  required.  Ordinarily 
I  don't  know  about  that.  Take  a  yard  in  which,  say,  two 
men  are  employed,  one  outside  to  attend  to  the  piling,  load- 
ing and  slicking  up,  and  the  other  on  the  inside  to  look 
after  the  customers  and  books,  and  I  think  that  the  inside 
man  could  squeeze  out  time  to  wait  on  the  hardware  cus- 


"A   girl   typewriter." 

tomers.     Yard  men  put  in  a  heap  of  time  with  their  heels 
cocked  on  the  table,  don't  you  know  they  do  ? 

When  it  comes  to  the  yard  that  is  operated  by  one  man 
power  we  may  look  at  it  in  another  light.  I  saw  a  man  who 
sold  lumber,  coal,  paint,  agricultural  implements,  bought 
hogs  and  corn,  and  if  there  was  a  blessed  soul  around  the 
place  except  himself  I  did  not  become  aware  of  it.  He 
would  run  from  a  load  of  hogs  to  a  load  of  corn,  and  back 
into  the  office  when  he  heard  the  telephone  dingling.  I 
was  there  two  hours  and  I  talked  with  him  two  minutes. 
He  said  he  got  time  to  read  this  yard  literature  on  Sunday, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  79 

but  just  at  that  time  he  was  so  busy  he  couldn't  talk  with  his 
grandmother.  I  don't  know  why  he  should  take  me  for  his 
grandmother,  but  that  is  what  he  said. 

I  cannot  find  it  in  my  heart  to  shout  long  and  loud  for 
the  one  man  power  in  the  lumber  yard.  When  one  man 
must  pile  the  lumber,  sell  it,  keep  the  books  and  do  all  the 
smoking  his  hands  are  more  than  full.  Of  course  there 
are  yards  in  little  burgs  which  can  be  cared  for  by  one 
man,  and  even  then  that  man  can  take  a  nap  after  dinner, 
but  we  will  leave  this  class  of  yards  out  of  the  calculation. 

There  is  here  and  there  a  man  who  imagines  he  is  just 
old  lightning,  and  boasts  how  much  business  he  does  all 
alone.  Recently  I  was  in  the  office  of  one  of  these  men.  He 
was  showing  his  lumber  to  a  farmer,  and  from  the  time  he 
was  in  the  yard  I  should  think  he  showed  him  all  he  had. 
Two  men  stuck  their  heads  in  at  the  office  door  while  I  was 
holding  down  the  old  wooden  bottom  chair,  and  not  seeing 
the  boss  went  on.  Maybe  they  didn't  want  a  thing  and 
maybe  they  did.  I  am  not  in  the  field  to  force  my  opinions 
upon  you,  but  to  tell  you  the  opinions  of  your  brother 
dealers  and  how  they  are  getting  along;  but  on  this  one 
occasion  I  am  moved  to  say  that  it  is  an  excellent  thing  to 
have  somebody  around  a  business  place  to  see  what  is 
wanted.  In  an  office  in  which  I  recently  called  the  only 
visible  human  being  was  a  girl  typewriter — a  pretty  type- 
writer of  course ;  that  is  what  the  newspapers  always  say. 
I  didn't  care  because  this  girl  typewriter  was  holding  down 
the  office.  I  tipped  my  75-cent  hat  to  her,  and  then  we 
went  to  talking  about  the  merits  of  the  different  writing 
machines.  Just  as  I  was  telling  her  that  I  used  a  .Blickr 
ensderfer — a  Dutch  machine — and  that  often  my  words 
were  not  correctly  spelled  for  the  reason  that  the  blamed 
Dutch  thing  had  not  yet  learned  the  English  language,  the 
yard  man  came  in.  The  girl  was  laughing  at  what  I  said 
about  my  machine,  and  when  her  employer  suddenly  made 
his  appearance  through  the  back  door  she  went  to  blushing, 
for  no  reason  so  far  as  I  know  but  that  she  was  laughing 


8o  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

Under  those  circumstances  I  had  to  introduce  myself  to 
the  head  of  the  house.  Even  innocence  will  sometimes  give 
a  fellow  a  rap.  I  hope  this  will  fully  explain  matters  to 
that  yard  man. 

Last  winter  I  spent  three  or  four  hours  in  a  lumber 
office  in  which  hardware  is  sold  and  saw  the  way  it  is  done 
there.  Once  the  bookkeeper  waited  on  a  customer  who 
wanted  nails,  and  with  an  eagle  claw-shaped  instrument  he 
pulled  the  nails  out  of  the  keg  into  the  scales  scoop,  and 
did  not  handle  them  except  to  throw  a  few  back  which  were 
not  wanted.  Then  he  brushed  his  hands  together,  charged 
the  nails  on  the  day  book  and  went  back  to  his  ledger. 
Therein  comes  a  part  of  the  fun — to  sell  two  pounds  of 
nails  and  charge  them.  When  the  bookkeeper  was  out  a 
carpenter  came  in  and  wanted  a  set  of  rollers  for  a  barn 
door.  The  young  lady  who  was  doing  some  kind  of  office 
work  in  the  place  adjusted  her  hair,  tripped  around  behind 
the  counter  as  though  she  was  walking  on  eggs,  and  waited 
for  the  carpenter  to  tell  her  where  the  rollers  were.  Then 
she  bundled  them  up,  using  four  times  as  much  paper  and 
string  as  she  ought  to,  and  tripped  back  behind  the  glass 
partition.  The  yard  man  said  that  his  hardware  paid  a 
handsome  profit. 

Whether  a  yard  man  sells  hardware  in  connection  with 
his  lumber  or  not  largely  depends  on  his  taste  and  his  en- 
vironments. If  there  is  a  good  understanding  between 
the  lumber  and  hardware  trades  the  lumberman  has  no  de- 
sire to  dip  into  hardware.  Probably  nine-tenths  of  the  retail 
lumbermen  sell  coal,  yet  I  heard  a  yard  man  express  him- 
self the  other  day  that  he  wouldn't  "be  bothered  with  the 
blank  stuff!"  If  a  retail  man  can  sell  lumber  and  coal  and 
make  a  success  of  it  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  he  can  sell 
hardware,  provided  he  wants  to. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 
STEADY  PRICES  WANTED. 


81 


A  yard  man  poised  his  penholder  between  his  ringers 
and  said  he  did  not  know  whether  to  order  a  car  of  yellow 
pine  flooring  or  not.  He  had  no  faith  in  the  stability  of 
prices.  They  had  been  away  up ;  now  they  had  come  down 
part  way,  and  he  did  not  know  but  in  two  weeks  he  would 
be  able  to  buy  cheaper  than  he  could  then. 

If  you  will  permit  me  to  speak  in  the  language  of  the 
classics,  there  apparently  has  been  more  monkeying  with 
prices  than  suits  the  yard  men.  I  hear  nothing  in  trade 


"I  was  in  his  billiard  room." 

circles  oftener  than  that.  The  yard  men  are  very  much  at 
sea.  They  do  not  know  whether  they  are  skating  on  their 
ears  or,  in  trying  to  keep  on  their  feet,  are  running  their 
shoes  down  at  the  heels. 

Maybe  at  this  juncture  some  of  you  unsympathizing 
autocrats  in  the  wholesale  branch  of  the  business  will  speak 
up  and  say,  "That  is  the  way  with  them  always.  They  want 
prices  lower  than  a  driven  well !"  If  you  say  that  I  am 
going  to  say  back  that  you  do  not  know  the  retail  men  of 


82  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

the  country.  They  are  not  praying  for  low  prices — they 
want  steady  prices.  Not  those  which  will  go  up  and  shake 
hands  with  the  king  of  Mars  today  and  go  down  to  the 
other  end  of  the  gamut  tomorrow.  Ask  them  when  they 
come  into  your  office  to  buy  if  this  is  not  what  they  want ; 
and  if  they  say  it  is  not  you  may  give  me  the  best  cigar  in 
your  case  the  next  time  we  meet. 

The  great  merchant  does  not  want  steady  prices.  Such 
prices  give  him  no  opportunity  to  make  his  foresight  pay 
him.  Such  prices  would  keep  him  on  the  level  with  other 
mortals.  The  great  merchant  lays  hold  of  the  future,  dis- 
sects and  analyzes  it.  The  problem  of  cost  and  production, 
supply  and  demand  are  ever  before  him.  He  sees  away  on 
ahead  and  buys  accordingly.  A  friend  of  mine  in  the  mer- 
cantile business  discovered  that  a  line  of  goods  was  selling 
below  the  point  of  cost  of  production.  Maybe  they  were 
put  out  as  a  leader,  maybe  to  knock  some  other  fellow  off 
the  track — this  merchant  didn't  care  why  they  were  so  sell- 
ing. He  took  all  of  his  own  ready  money,  borrowed  more, 
rented  warehouses  and  bought  and  stored.  His  wife  came 
near  having  the  hysterics.  She  could  see  about  an  inch 
from  her  nose  and  thought  that  her  husband  was  going 
head  to  on  a  rock  that  would  lay  their  craft  open  from  bow 
to  stern.  Woman  is  an  intuitive  creature ;  she  is  an  angel 
by  the  side  of  us  fellows  who  have  to  shave,  but  when  it 
comes  to  reasoning  out  great  financial  problems  she  was 
not  born  for  it.  She  was  born  for  greater  things  than  that. 

While  this  man  was  waiting  for  a  rise  I  was  in  his 
billiard  room  one  evening.  He  stepped  around  the  table  as 
spry  as  a  steel  trap  and  as  gay  as  a  meadow  lark.  Three 
times  in  as  many  hours  he  went  into  the  basement,  came 
up  and  pulled  a  cork.  He  was  enthusiastic ;  and  in  passing 
let  me  say  I  like  to  associate  with  men  of  such  enthusiasm. 
He  felt,  as  we  say  in  polite  society,  that  he  had  the  world  by 
the  caudal  appendage.  He  waited  patiently  for  a  few 
months  and  the  value  of  the  goods  in  which  he  had  invested 
began  to  seek  its  level.  This  is  a  good  thing  for  us  to  bear 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  83 

in  mind  always — that  sooner  or  later  values  of  all  things- 
goods,  character,  effort — seek  their  level.  You  can  neither 
keep  them  up  with  balloons  nor  down  by  tying  millstones 
to  their  necks.  Up,  up  the  price  went,  and  when  it  had 
reached  a  point  to  suit  the  merchant  he  let  go.  "I  cleaned 
up  $90,000,"  he  said  to  me.  That  man  was  betting  on  a 
sure  thing,  speculator  though  he  ordinarily  would  be  called. 
If  he  had  not  kept  an  eye  on  the  cost  of  production  he  never 
could  have  taken  the  advantage  of  the  market  he  did. 

All  the  yard  men,  however,  are  not  capable  merchants. 
You,  and  you  and  you  are,  but  some  of  the  fellows  over  in 
the  next  county  are  not.  Possibly  over  in  the  next  county 
there  are  not  more  than  two  or  three  who  can  read  the 
future  of  events  and  plan  accordingly.  Therefore,  what  is 
it  that  the  most  of  them  want  ?  Why,  steady  prices. 


HOW  YOUR  CUSTOMERS  GRADE. 

The  yard  man  was  wideawake  in  more  directions  than 
one.  Very  likely  there  is  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  us  who 
studies  all  the  phases  of  the  business.  I  have  yet  to  find  a 
man  who,  in  my  opinion,  is  complete  master  of  his  calling. 
They  know  a  great  deal  about  it,  many  of  them,  but  talk 
with  them  for  twenty-five  minutes,  take  a  look  around  the 
premises,  and  it  is  discovered  there  is  some  cog  slipping. 
Which  is  not  saying  a  thing  against  a  man  of  you,  for  how 
can  we  expect  to  be  perfect  in  this  world  of  imperfections  ? 
We  don't  want  to  get  perfect,  fly  away  and  'eave  our  friends 
desolate,  especially  those  we  owe,  do  we  ? 

The  retail  lumberman  wanted  to  know  more  about  the 
people  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  so  he  got  up  a  rating 
book  of  his  own.  I  can't  tell  you  what  this  man's  name  is, 
nor  where  he  lives,  for  it  would  not  only  be  letting  the  cat 
out  of  the  bag  but  a  whole  litter  of  little  kittens  with  her. 
This  rating  book  making  was  conducted  perfectly  sub  rosa. 


84  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

for  were  it  known  the  result  might  be  law  suits  and  possibly 
broken  heads.  This  yard  man  has  his  rating  book  printed, 
and  so  far  as  the  methods  of  obtaining  information  are  con- 
cerned it  may  be  said  the  ratings  are  the  consensus  of  the 
stories  told  by  the  account  books  of  several  of  the  leading 
business  houses  of  the  town. 

I  sat  down  with  this  yard  man  and  he  pointed  out  some 
things  in  connection  with  his  book  which  were  exceedingly 
interesting.  For  instance,  there  are  whole  families  which 
seem  to  have  been  born  culls.  Take  them  right  down  from 
grandfather  to  grandson,  the  whole  lot  is  no  good  as  cus- 
tomers. A  process  of  law  cannot  squeeze  a  cent  out  of  them ; 
and  voluntarily  they  pay  nothing.  Then  there  are  families 


"I  sat  down  with  this  yard  man." 

which  are  all  right  down  the  line,  thrifty  and  honorable. 
This  yard  man  says  as  a  purchaser  treats  one  tradesman  in 
town  so  he  will  treat  the  others.  If  he  is  slow  with  you  he 
is  slow  with  all,  and  if  he  pays  you  promptly  he  pays  others 
promptly.  The  conclusion  reached  in  this  matter  seems 
once  more  to  emphasize  the  old  saying  that  it  is  impossible 
to  make  a  whistle  out  of  a  pig's  tail.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  those  traits  of  character  which  are  born  in  us  we 
will  retain  through  life;  that  we  can  hardly  shake  them 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  85 

more  than  we  can  shake  the  physical  peculiarities  and  char- 
acteristics which  we  inherited. 

This  yard  man  gave  me  one  of  these  books  that  I  might 
draw  some  conclusions  from  it,  and  an  analysis  shows  some 
features  which  may  be  new  to  some  of  us. 

We  will  say  that  the  figures  representing  the  ratings 
are  I,  2,  3,  4  and  5.  One  stands  for  collectible  and  prompt 
pay;  2  for  collectible  and  slow  pay;  3  for  prompt  pay;  4 
for  a  risk ;  5  for  as  near  a  dead  beat  as  you  can  put  a  finger 
on  it.  You  are  acquainted  with  all  these  classes — the  man 
who  has  property  and  who  is  also  a  man ;  the  man  who  has 
property,  yet  who  staves  off  the  paying  of  a  debt  as  long 
as  he  can  and  who,  if  he  did  not  have  property  that  could 
be  reached,  would  be  a  dead  beat;  the  man  who  really  be- 
longs to  the  salt  of  the  earth  insomuch  that  the  payment 
of  a  bill  is  a  matter  of  honor  with  him ;  the  man  to  whom 
you  sell  half  thinking  you  will  never  receive  pay  for  your 
goods ;  and  finally  the  man  who  if  he  gets  your  goods  in  his 
hands  you  know  those  goods  are  lost  to  you. 

Take  the  town  in  which  you  sell  lumber,  with  its  vicin- 
ity, and  how  is  the  population  divided  as  to  these  various 
classes  ?  This  is  the  point  I  have  been  trying  to  figure  out. 
There  were  fractions  which  stuck  themselves  in  the  way 
but  these  were  fired  out  of  the  window  bodily.  The  yard 
man,  who  has  probably  given  more  thought  to  this  subject 
than  you  and  I  together,  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  town  in 
which  he  resides  is  a  typical  one.  It  was  originally  settled 
by  eastern  people,  and  during  the  years  which  have  fol- 
lowed Dutchmen,  Danes  and  others  from  foreign  shores, 
who  know  a  good  thing  when  they  see  it,  have  bought  much 
of  the  surrounding  farm  lands  and  are  getting  rich ;  which 
makes  about  a  typical  prairie  state  town.  In  this  list  there 
are  something  less  than  2,500  names,  and  when  the  per- 
centages are  cast  with  reference  to  the  rating  figures  the 
result  shows  as  follows : 

30  percent  I — collectible  and  prompt  pay. 
19  percent  2 — collectible  and  slow  pay. 


86  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

19  percent  3 — prompt  pay,  but  not  collectible. 

18  percent  4 — risk. 

14  percent  5 — n.  g.  or  culis. 

The  people  represented  by  the  30  percent  are  gilt-edge 
customers;  the  next  19  percent  are  all  right,  provided  that 
life  is  not  too  short  to  wait  for  them;  the  following  19  per- 
cent will  pay  as  promptly  as  will  the  first  30,  should  there 
be  no  ill  fortune  in  the  shape  of  enforced  idleness,  sickness 
or  death  to  prevent;  the  next  18  percent  you  sell  at 
your  risk;  and  the  final  14  percent  will  beat  you  at  every 
turn.  You  have  before  now  been  introduced  to  all  these 
kinds  of  people,  and  possibly  you  may  not  be  thankful  for 
a  ^introduction  to  those  who  are  rated  as  five. 

It  occurred  to  me  that  it  might  be  an  item  of  interest  to 
divide  the  men  and  women  of  the  list  and  see  how  they  com- 
pare in  relation  to  debt  paying.  We  lords  of  creation  make 
the  following  showing: 

30  percent  i — collectible  and  prompt  pay. 

18  percent  2 — collectible  and  slow  pay. 

19  percent  3 — prompt  pay,  but  not  collectible. 
19  percent  4 — risk. 

14  percent  5 — culls. 

On  the  list  there  are  the  names  of  more  than  200  women 
and,  as  they  usually  do,  they  shine  as  planets,  while  we  fel- 
lows who  are  so  proud  to  have  it  known  that  we  wear  pants 
made  from  imported  cassimere  glimmer  as  third-class  stars. 
Here  is  the  women's  record : 

37  percent  I — collectible  and  prompt  pay. 

13  percent  2 — collectible  and  slow  pay. 

27  percent  3 — prompt  pay,  but  not  collectible. 

10  percent  4 — risk. 

13  percent  5 — no  good,  from  a  financial  point  of  course. 

The  most  of  those  composing  the  37  percent  are  widows, 
and  to  read  between  the  lines  we  must  reach  the  conclusion 
that  having  been  left  in  comfortable  circumstances  they  are 
more  prompt  to  pay  their  debts  than  their  departed  hus- 
bands were.  If  this  were  not  so  the  percentage  of  i  would 
be  lowered  and  that  of  2  made  larger,  as  it  is  in  the  case  of 
the  men. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  87 

Then  observe  the  number  of  women  who  pay  their  debts 
when  legally  not  a  cent  can  be  collected  from  them.  I 
called  my  best  girl's  attention  to  this  fact,  and  she  calmly 
replied:  "Why,  of  course!"  In  the  risky  class  there  are 
two  men  to  one  woman,  but  when  it  comes  to  worthless 
culls  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  sexes  run  about  neck  and 
neck,  with  i  percent  in  favor  of  the  women.  But,  Lord 
bless  them,  they  lead  us  so  far  in  other  respects  it  seems 
mean  to  mention  this  latter  fact. 


DEFECTS  IN  A  COAL  HOUSE. 

The  yard  man  said  he  built  a  coal  house  from  a  plan 
published  in  these  columns.  In  this  house  the  floor  sloped 
to  the  front,  and  the  builder  of  it  said  it  was  a  capital  idea, 
but  he  had  run  against  a  snag.  At  the  same  time,  he  said, 
he  ought  to  have  had  sense  to  guard  against  it;  but  he 
wanted  to  tell  of  it  so  that  other  dealers  might  have  clear 
sailing.  I  slapped  him  on  the  back  and  told  him  he  was  an 
ideal  man,  a  scholar  and  a  philanthropist.  If  every  yard 
man  would  do  that — make  his  co-laborers  acquainted  with 
the  means  by  which  he  succeeded  or  failed — there  would  be 
less  groping  in  the  dark  than  there  is.  If  you  all  would 
speak  right  out  in  meetin'.  tell  what  you  know  and  what 
you  don't  know,  the  selling  of  lumber  at  retail  would  be 
reduced  to  a  science  in  twelve  months.  You  think  that  a 
publisher  can  make  a  good  lumber  paper  without  your  assist- 
ance, but  it  is  impossible.  You  are  his  right-hand  man.  I 
should  like  to  see  the  result  if  you  would  turn  yourself 
loose  once.  When  talking  with  a  yard  man  about  this  the 
other  day  he  said.  "I  suppose  we  do  know  a  good  many 
points  about  selling  lumber,  but  we  are  not  writers."  Writ- 
ers to  the  dogs !  Do  you  know  that  the  best  writers  in  the 
world  are  those  people  who  have  something  to  tell  and  tell 


88 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


it  in  a  way  that  others  can  understand  it  ?    That  is  the  only 
secret  about  it." 

"It  is  wrong,"  this  yard  man  who  had  built  a  coal  house 
explained,  "to  provide  the  usual  foundation  for  a  coal  house 
of  this  kind,  for  the  reason  that  the  weight  is  not  evenly 
distributed,  it  being  much  greater  in  front  than  in  the  rear. 
The  center  of  gravity  is  by  no  means  in  the  center  of  the 
building.  Then  the  house  should  be  effectually  braced  in- 


"Make  his  co-laborers  acquainted." 

side.  The  coal  pushing  down  in  front  bulged  the  wall,  and 
I  had  to  put  iron  rods  inside  from  back  to  front  to  hold  it 
in  place.  Those  are  the  mistakes  that  a  man  would  naturally 
make,  but  when  a  building  is  put  up  as  it  ought  to  be  it  is  the 
boss." 


APPROACHING  DULLNESS. 

It  is  not  expected  the  average  yard  man  will  have 
much  to  do  during  the  winter  months.  In  large  cities 
the  building  season  is  the  year  round — that  is,  it  never 
actually  comes  to  a  standstill — but  in  your  little  burg  a  man 
who  would  start  to  build  a  house  in  the  winter  would  be 
branded  a  lower  grade  of  lunatic.  In  these  small  towns 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  89 

there  are  men  without  number  who  will  argue  that  the 
proper  way  to  build  a  house  is  to  put  in  the  foundation  walls 
in  the  fall  and  let  them  settle  through  the  winter,  or  ''ripen," 
as  a  man  said  to  me.  And  that  very  man  appeared  to  be  a 
good  deal  of  a  fellow  on  general  principles,  too.  There  is 
no  accounting  for  the  way  people  will  get  to  thinking.  Smart 
men  have  these  little  wormholes  in  them. 

The  time  of  year  will  come  when,  as  a  rule,  the  yard 
man  in  the  small  town  may  sit  down  and  foot  up  his 
sales  for  the  year.  He  will  do  something  after  this  date, 
sell  a  little  inside  finish  for  jobs  that  are  under  way,  and 
driblets  now  and  then  to  a  farmer  who  is  backward  in 
patching  up  around  his  premises,  but  the  aggregate  of  his 
sales  will  be  small.  A  dealer  told  me  just  as  last  winter  had 
fairly  begun  that  he  might  as  well  put  the  cork  right  in 
then. 

It  seems  to  me  if  I  were  running-a  lumber  yard  I  would 
sell  coal  if  only  for  the  moral  effect,  namely,  to  keep  me 
from  becoming  any  lazier  than  I  am  at  present.  A  country 
lumber  office  in  the  winter,  where  there  is  no  coal  being  ped- 
dled out,  in  matter  of  quietness  and  silence  comes  next  to 
the  cemetery.  There  is  no  other. business  place  in  a  town 
that  can  match  it.  Last  winter  I  sat  in  an  office  four  straight 
hours,  and  not  a  soul  opened  the  front  door.  There  was  the 
advantage  that  there  was  time  for  a  good  talk,  but  we 
talked  out — that  is,  in  the  lumber  line.  We  ran  along  like 
two  old  women  on  the  gossip  of  the  country,  but  that  hardly 
counts.  There  is  a  sight  of  difference  in  the  way  lumber- 
men will  talk.  With  some  there  is  a  sudden  gush,  and  they 
are  done.  They  think  they  have  told  all  they  know.  Others 
will  steadily  bubble  along  like  a  spring.  Then  there  are 
those  who  are  intermittent.  They  have  their  say,  and  then 
having  got  their  second  wind  they  will  break  out  again. 

Gathering  retail  lumber  news  is  like  fishing.  It  is 
never  known  what  luck  is  ahead.  Often  I  have  started  out 
expecting  to  catch  a  whale  and  not  got  even  a  minnow.  I 
have  tramped  until  my  boots  leaked  and  got  so  little  worth 


90  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

writing  about  that  I  expected  my  discharge  by  return  mail. 
Then  again  when  I  had  hoped  to  catch  a  fish  just  about  big 
enough  to  fry,  up  would  come  a  whale.  Last  fall  I  ran 
against  a  whale.  He  did  not  belong  in  the  office  in  which 
I  was  calling,  but  dropped  down  as  from  the  sky.  He  saun- 
tered in,  sat  on  the  table,  swung  his  feet  and  poured  out 
the  stuff  as  fast  as  I  wanted  to  take  care  of  it.  I  never  use 
a  note  book,  having  decided  years  ago  that  if  the  machinery 
up  in  my  think  tank  couldn't  stow  away  facts  and  figures 
and  hand  them  out  when  I  wanted  them  I  would  have  it 
rebushed.  Few  men  have  ever  taxed  that  machinery  as 


.  .  /r\< 

"Started  out  expecting  to  catch  a  whale." 

this  whale  did.  He  had  been  in  every  line  of  the  lumber 
business,  could  talk  like  greased  lightning  and  every'  sen- 
tence contained  meat.  He  rattled  off  figures,  opinions, 
prices,  names,  and  he  would  have  found  a  close  listener 
until  midnight  if  he  had  kept  on.  I  should  like  to  meet  a 
fellow  of  that  kind  that  would  tire  me  out.  He  said,  though, 
he  was  going  to  Omaha,  and  broke  away.  I  suppose  that 
for  the  next  several  years  I  will  occasionally  draw  on  some- 
thing that  man  told  me.  That  is  the  way  I  get  at  the  stuff 
up  in  the  reservoir.  I  pull  the  spiggot.  and  if  it  doesn't  tap 
quite  right  by  falling  into  the  proper  place  I  send  it  back  to 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  91 

lie  in  storage  for  a  while  longer.  I  say,  "You  blamed  idea, 
I  can  get  along  without  you,  and  you  can't  show  your  head 
here  unless  you  do  it  in  a  proper  way." 

In  one  office  in  the  dull  season  a  friend  of  the  yard  man 
had  dropped  in  and  they  were  having  a  game  cf  euchre. 
An  invitation  to  join  was  immediately  issued,  but  I  told 
them  I  had  never  in  my  life  run  up  against  any  game  of 
cards  even  for  fun,  except  poker,  and  since  I  had  children 


"A   country    lumber    office    in    winter." 

to  preach  morality  to  I  had  quit  even  that,  furthermore,  that 
in  order  to  support  a  family  it  was  necessary  to  have  some 
money.  And  right  here  I  remember  the  remarks  of  an 
Ohio  yard  man  on  the  subject  of  games  in  the  lumber  office. 
He  said  he  would  not  have  one  of  them  played  on  his  prem- 
ises ;  not  even  quoits  in  the  yard.  No  cards,  no  checkers, 
no  anything.  He  didn't  have  it  in  for  any  of  these  games, 
but  the  idea  was  that  if  you  or  I  should  drop  into  his  place 
he  would  not  want  it  to  have  the  appearance  of  a  fourth- 
class  saloon  with  a  lot  of  fellows  sitting  around  playing 
for  drinks  and  spitting  on  the  floor.  From  a  high  business 
point  of  view  I  think  he  \vas  right. 

It  is  not  necessary,  however,  for  a  small  town  dealer 


92  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

to  hibernate  during  the  winter  months.  The  best  of  them 
will  of  course  read  the  current  lumber  literature.  A  yard 
man  told  me  that  he  would  want  a  lumber  paper  when 
business  opened  the  next  spring!  What  would  you  do  with 
such  a  man  ?  Hitch  weights  to  his  ears  and  stretch  them 
out  a  couple  of  feet  long  so  he  would  pass  for  what  he  is 
worth,  or  what?  In  the  winter  a  yard  man  ought  to  be 
sticking  a  pin  into  every  condition  and  indication  he  can 
learn.  If  I  expected  to  buy  lumber  to  sell  at  retail  next  year 
I  should  look  out  for  the  figures  representing  the  stocks  on 
hand  at  the  end  of  the  shipping  season,  and  then  keep  posted 
on  the  demand  during  the  winter;  keep  an  eye  on  the 
logging  operations,  and  thus  try  to  know  a  thing  or  two 
when  spring  rolled  around.  "The  lumber  barons  can't  fool 
us  much  if  we  only  keep  our  eyes  open. 


LENDING  LUMBER. 

You  have  no  doubt  been  asked  to  loan  your  lumber  and 
dimension  piles.  The  retail  lumberman  is  regarded  as  an 
accommodating  mortal  and  on  occasions  like  fairs,  festivals 
and  the  like  his  lumber  may  as  well  be  pressed  into  service 
as  not.  It's  only  boards  that  he  deals  in,  and  it  doesn't 
hurt  those  boards  to  be  made  into  booths,  tables  and  seats. 
At  any  rate  that  is  the  way  the  public  is  inclined  to  think. 
The  yard  man  thinks  differently ;  still,  first  and  last  he  lends 
a  great  deal  of  lumber  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  peace  in 
the  family.  The  great  buying  family  is  very  touchy  over 
some  matters,  and  we  do  not  succeed  in  pleasing  it  any  too 
well  if  we  try  our  best. 

"Two  years  ago,"  said  the  yard  man,  "I  believe  I  was 
as  provoked  over  the  little  matter  of  lending  lumber  as  I 
have  been  for  many  years.  At  the  fair  our  church  people 
wanted  to  run  an  eating  stand,  and  it  was  natural  enough 
for  them  to  come  to  me  to  borrow  the  lumber  with  which 
to  build.  Would  T  deliver  it?  Of  course  I  would,  for  I 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  93 

delivered  lumber  for  everybody,  so  I  took  them  ovei  the 
antouut  of  lumber  a  carpenter  said  they  wanted.  It  rained 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  last  day  of  the  fair,  and  the  next 
morning  when  I  went  over  to  get  the  stuff  I  saw  a  tough 
looking  lot  of  lumber.  Of  course  the  roof  boards  were  thor- 
oughly wet.  They  had  made  a  floor  of  a  portion  of  the 
boards  and  this  was  covered  with  mud.  The  tables  were 
besmeared  with  coffee,  pie  and  other  eatables.  I  gathered 
the  lumber  up  and  was  half  inclined  to  make  a  bonfire  of  it. 
Got  nothing  for  the  use  of  it  ?  No,  not  even  a  thank  you." 

"On  what  basis  do  you  lend  lumber?"  a  yard  man  was 
asked  who  was  loading  boards  for  some  fakirs  on  the  fair 
ground. 

"Only  on  one  basis — cash  down,"  was  the  reply.  "I 
don't  care  who  it  is  who  wants  to  borrow  lumber ;  he  pays 
for  it  before  it  goes  out  of  the  yard.  Then  I  am  in  a  posi- 
tion to  adjust  my  claims  when  it  is  returned.  Now  I  don't 
care  how  many  nail  holes  and  cracks  are  in  these  boards 
when  these  fellows  are  through  with  them,  I  will  buy  them 
back  for  just  what  they  are  worth  to  me.  Then  if  they  for- 
get to  return  them  I  don't  care  the  snap  of  my  finger." 

"I  do  not  like  to  lend  lumber  but  sometimes  I  do,"  said 
another  dealer.  "I  draw  the  line,  however.  When  it  is  to 
go  inside  for  seats  or  tables  I  let  it  go  and  take  the  chances, 
but  when  it  is  to  be  used  outdoors  and  is  liable  to  be  caught 
out  in  the  rain  the  people  who  get  it  must  be  customers,  and 
then  it  is  understood  that  they  must  pay  for  any  damage,  and 
you  cannot  think  of  many  uses  to  which  lumber  can  be  put 
and  not  be  damaged.  Often  when  people  borrow  lumber 
they  think  that  a  few  nail  holes  in  it  will  do  no  harm,  but 
these  same  people  would  not  want  to  buy  it  at  full  prices 
with  those  holes  in  it.  You  see  it  makes  a  difference  who  !t 
paying  the  bill." 


94 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


OPEN  AND  CLOSED  SHEDS. 


"Why  on  earth  should  I  build  an  open  shed?"  the  yard 
man  asked,  in  a  manner  that  bespoke  disgust  that  any- 
body should  prefer  such  a  shed.  "When  I  have  a  shed  I 
want  it  to  fill  the  bill — not  half  shed  and  half  open  to  the 
weather.  Tell  me  how  you  are  to  keep  the  lumber  in  an 
open  shed  dry  in  a  driving  rainstorm?  And  how  does  it 
work  when  there  comes  a  rip-roaring  old  blizzard  of  a 
snowstorm  ?  Why,  I  have  seen  an  open  shed  literally  packed 


"In  a  driving  rainstorm." 

with  snow,  and  then  it  is  such  a  nice  job  to  clean  it  out,  or 
wait  for  it  to  melt !  I  have  seen  sheds  that  to  load  lumber 
from,  when  the  snow  was  melting  from  the  roofs,  was  like 
being  out  in  a  hard  rainstorm.  Of  course  such  sheds  can  be 
built  with  hoods,  but  not  all  of  them  are  built  that  way.  No, 
sir ;  I  want  none  of  it  in  mine." 

It  was  less  than  a  week  after  listening  to  the  above  com- 
ments that  the  other  side  of  the  story  was  offered.  The  ad- 
vocate of  the  open  shed  said  that  men  might  talk  and  talk  in 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  95 

favor  of  the  closed  shed,  but  the  fact  remained  that  lumber 
would  come  out  better  from  the  one  that  is  open. 

No  doubt  this  disagreement  will  continue.  I  must  say 
this,  however:  The  closed  shed  men  as  a  body  talk  as 
though  they  were  very  sure  of  their  footing.  They  appear 
to  be  convinced  that  they  are  a  step  in  advance  of  their 
brethren  who  are  using  open  sheds,  and  I  do  not  remem- 
ber having  met  a  dealer  who  said  he  would  willingly  go  from 
his  closed  shed  to  an  open  one,  while  on  the  other  hand  I 
have  heard  dealers  who  use  open  sheds  assert  that  they 
would  like  one  that  was  closed.  "I  don't  think  they  are  to 
be  mentioned  together  in  the  same  day,"  was  the  way  one 
dealer  who  has  close-shedded  in  everything  laconically  dis- 
posed of  the  question. 

Then  there  is  the  other  type  of  shed — the  one  which  has 
large  doors  along  the  side,  or  sides,  which  can  be  opened 
and  thus  during  pleasant  weather  permit  all  the  breezes 
\vhich  are  going  to  whistle  through  it.  No  rain  or  snow  can 
of  course  drive  into  these  sheds,  but  all  loading  and  unload- 
ing must  be  done  out  of  doors.  The  three  yards  in  the 
town  in  which  I  live  have  sheds  of  this  character.  There 
is  the  old  one  which  was  the  pioneer,  and  the  other  lumber 
men  who  built  followed  suit.  I  do  not,  however,  see  many 
sheds  of  this  kind. 

I  was  in  a  yard  which  formed  a  court  and  around  the 
sides  of  it  were  sheds  half  open — that  is,  opening  toward 
the  yard  with  the  backs  tightly  boarded  up.  I  went  into 
another  yard  in  the  same  town  and  it  had  similar  sheds.  No. 
3  had  the  same  kind  of  sheds,  as  also  did  No.  4.  The  kind 
of  sheds  in  a  town  depends  largely  on  the  style  the  first  fel- 
low on  the  ground  puts  up.  We  are  imitative  animals  and 
are  usually  quite  content  to  let  somebody  else  do  our  think- 
ing for  us. 

"I  don't  want  any  of  those  half-closed  sheds,"  a  yard 
man  remarked.  "I  want  a  shed  open  on  both  sides,  and  I 
want  it  in  the  yard,  clear  from  all  fences  and  buildings  so 
that  I  can  drive  right  around  it.  Here  is  an  advantage: 


96  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

Suppose  a  team  is  loading  from  a  particular  bent  and  an- 
other team  comes  in  for  the  same  grade  of  lumber.  It  isn't 
necessary  for  that  last  team  to  stand  around  until  the  first 
one  is  loaded,  but  it  can  drive  around  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  shed  and  load  up  right  from  the  same  pile.  From  sheds 
of  this  kind  I  will  handle  more  lumber  in  a  given  time  than 
can  be  handled  from  any  other  make.  And  when  it  comes 
to  protecting  lumber,  if  you  have  a  good  roof  over  it  it  is 
pretty  well  cared  for." 

"What  is  the  matter  with  my  shed?"  a  dealer  asked, 
who  had  a  large  closed  one,  with  a  foot  of  opening  below 
the  sill,  all  around.  "It  keeps  my  stock  well  shielded  from 
the  elements,  yet  I  get  a  fine  circulation  of  air  under  the 
piles.  To  remain  so?  Well,  no;  when  everything  is  com- 
pleted that  opening  will  be  closed,"  he  laughingly  remarked. 
This  same  unfinished  condition,  however,  is  one  which  some 
dealers  take  to,  the  idea  of  letting  air  under  the  piles  being 
carried  out  by  some  yard  men. 

A  retailer  who  has  recently  traveled  many  miles,  cover- 
ing in  part  a  half  dozen  states,  told  me  it  was  surprising 
how  few  sheds  worthy  of  the  name  he  saw.  He  is  of  the 
opinion  that  the  average  lumberman  as  yet  lacks  a  great  deal 
of  being  up  to  snuff.  That  has  been  my  observation,  but 
they  are  getting  there  all  the  same.  It  is  senseless  to  look 
for  a  harvest  until  the  seed  is  sown.  The  lumber  shed  seed 
has  begun  to  sprout  in  a  healthy  way. 


HYPNOTIC   POWER. 

An  acquaintance  who  is  a  close  observer,  having  visited 
a  prominent  yard  man,  one  in  fact  who  is  known  throughout 
the  retail  world,  was  asked  what  was  the  keynote  of  the 
dealer's  success.  "Hypnotism !"  he  answered.  I  smiled  at 
his  wisdom,  but  he  may  have  taken  it  for  an  incredulous 
smile. 

"Well,  what  is  it?"  he  asked.     "He  is  full  of  it.    I  have 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


97 


known  men  to  visit  his  place  swearing  vengeance,  but  he 
would  shake  hands  with  them  and  sell  them  a  load  of  lum- 
ber to  take  home/' 

There  is  no  sense  in  making  light  of  this  element  in  the 
makeup  of  the  human  animal.  It  is  appreciably  possessed 
by  many,  and  doubtless  by  all  to  some  extent.  Many  of  us 


"There  were  our  best  girls." 

have  seen  snakes  and  cats  "charm"  birds,  as  it  is  called, 
and  no  doubt  it  is  a  species  of  hypnotism. 

Not  long  ago  a  yard  man  was  telling  me  that  last  fall 
he  went  north  expecting  to  buy  two  cars  of  lumber,  and 
before  he  had  got  away  from  a  certain  dealer  he  had  been 
induced  to  buy  six.  He  said  when  he  went  away  and  got  to 


98  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

thinking  about  it  he  was  almost  frightened.  I  asked  him  if 
he  didn't  wish  that  the  wholesale  man  had  cast  still  more 
of  a  spell  over  him,  and  he  said  he  did.  "If  I  had  known 
how  lumber  was  going  I  would  have  mortgaged  my  shirt 
to  buy  it,"  he  said. 

No  doubt  this  magnetic  quality  in  a  man  helps  him  along 
no  matter  in  what  business  he  may  engage.  It  draws  peo- 
ple to  him,  and  naturally  we  like  and  will  favor  the  persons 
or  things  to  which  we  are  attracted.  Now  there  were  our 
best  girls;  didn't  they  draw  us  possibly  miles  and  miles? 
And  for  their  sakes  didn't  we  empty  our  pockets  into  the 
money  drawers  of  the  liverymen,  the  ice  cream  parlor  pro- 
prietors and  the  like?  When  the  people  of  a  community 
take  to  a  dealer  jn  lumber,  when  he  makes  of  himself  a 
good  fellow  in  their  eyes  and  weaves  over  them  a  sort 
of  hypnotic  influence,  he  is  going  to  sell  many  a  bill  which 
otherwise  would  have  gone  to  the  other  fellow.  I  know  as 
many  as  a  dealer  or  two  who  I  believe  would  do  well  to 
read  this  little  article  two  or  three  times.  It  was  not  an 
age  ago  that  I  heard  a  dealer  declare  with  some  warmth 
that  he  didn't' give 'a  rap  whether  he  sold  a  certain  bill  or 
not.  Maybe  he  wouldn't  give  a  rap  to  sell  the  bill,  but  it 
was  mighty  poor  business  policy  for  him  to  say  so.  We 
should  always  aim  to  talk  in  a  way  that  people  will  believe 
we  mean  what  we  say.  This  dealer  had  worked  hard  to  get 
the  bill — so  hard  that  it  was  plain  he  wanted  it — and  then 
for  him  to  turn  around  and  huffily  say  that  he  didn't  want 
it  did  not  tally  with  what  had  gone  before.  He  ought  to 
have  assumed  such  winning  manners  and  treated  so  well 
the  fellow  with  whom  he  had  been  trying  to  deal  that  the 
prospective  customer  would  think  he  was  committing  a 
crime  if  the  bill  was  placed  elsewhere.  Tact !  tact !  That 
is  what  we  need,  and  if  we  had  to  buy  it  its  weight  in  gold 
would  be  a  small  price. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  99 

HANDLING  TOWX  AX  I)  COUNTRY  TRADE. 

There  is  difference  in  ginger,  but  not  so  much  as  there 
is  in  men.  All  ginger  was  probably  made  for  a  specific  pur- 
pose, while  men  are  adapted  for  all  sorts  of  work.  Where 
ginger  can  fill  one  place  man  can  fill  places  innumerable. 
A  yard  man  recently  told  me  he  had  discovered  that  his 
career  as  a  lumberman  was  limited,  owing  to  his  inability 
to  get  the  portion  of  the  farmer  trade  that  he  thought  he 
ought  to  have.  He  had  become  conscious  of  this,  and  as  a 
consequence  he  might,  when  opportunity  offered,  make  a 
change  in  his  business.  Town  trade,  he  said,  gave  him  no 
worry.  In  this  direction  he  felt  able  to  hold  his  own  with 
his  competitors,  but  when  it  came  to  dealing  with  the  farm- 
ers he  knew  he  was  lacking  in  some  quality. 

I  want  to  say  there  is  hope  without  end  for  any  man 
who  will  analyze  himself  in  that  manner.  Few  do  it.  *  If 
we  do  not  succeed  we  are  disposed  at  least  to  divide  the 
blame;  we  take  the  unction  to  our  souls  that  if  the  rest 
of  humanity  had  come  up  to  the  scratch  we  would  also  have 
been  there.  When  a  man  will  ferret  out  his  thin  places  he 
can  then  go  to  work  and  patch  them  up. 

I  met  another  dealer  who  said  he  had  very  little 
country  trade.  He  could  not  seem  to  "get  hold  of  the 
farmer,'5  he  said.  Yet  he  spoke  of  it  in  a  way  that  might 
lead  one  to  think  that  the  fault,  if  fault  there  were,  was  with 
the  farmer  and  not  with  him.  The  fact  is,  the  right  kind 
of  man  will  work  about  anything,  even  a  farmer  when  the 
farmer  wants  lumber. 

The  first  dealer  named  was  asked  why  he  could  not 
sell  to  the  farm  trade,  and  in  other  words  he  said  he  was 
not  jockey  enough.  For  instance,  when  he  gave  figures  on 
a  bill  and  afterward  felt  convinced  that  a  competitor  had 
underbid  him  he  did  not  feel  like  making  a  smaller  price 
unless  there  was  some  excuse  for  it.  He  wanted  the  other 
fellow  to  see  there  was  some  excuse.  He  wanted  to  pose 
at  a  certain  standard  in  the  eves  of  the  man  with  whom  he 


ioo  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

was  trying  to  deal.  "The  farmer,"  said  he,  "will  come  in, 
sit  down  and  keep  mum  as  to  the  prices  offered  by  a  com- 
petitor. I  may  feel  that  my  prices  have  been  beaten,  yet  I 
haven't  the  gall  to  say  to  him  that  I  figured  a  little  high 
and  will  knock  off  something.  If  he  would  only  give  me 
an  opening,  tell  me  what  he  could  get  the  lumber  for  else- 
where, it  would  be  easy  to  say  to  him  that  I  wanted  his  trade, 
and  that  I  wasn't  going  to  stand  on  a  few  dollars.  In  that 
event  I  would  have  some  excuse  for  revising  my  first  bid/' 

"Why  can  vou  sell  more  readily  to  town  people?"  I 
asked. 

"Because  I  can  make  them  show  their  hands,"  he  said. 

Plainly  this  man's  failure  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
lacks  the  ability  to  crack  the  farmer  open  as  he  would  an 
oyster  shell  and  see  what  is  inside  of  him.  The  farmer  is 
too  stoical — too  Indian-like — for  him.  Too  unbusinesslike 
would  perhaps  be  putting  it  in  better  words.  He  will 
not  talk.  If  a  business  man  he  would  shoot  off  his  mouth, 
tell  the  yard  man  that  he  was  too  high,  that  he  could  buy 
the  same  lumber  elsewhere  for  so  and  so.  Then  the  lumber- 
man could  get  at  him  in  a  businesslike  way. 

I  know  another  yard  man  who  sells  lumber  to  farmers 
as  naturally  as  sparks  fly  upward.  He  handles  the  rural 
trade  well  for  the  reason  that  he  has  made  a  study  of  it. 
He  was  cut  out  for  it.  He  will  reach  a  little  farther  for  a 
farmer  than  he  will  for  anybody  else  and,  what  is  better,  he 
enjoys  the  contact. 

This  again  brings  to  mind  the  question  of  the  quality 
of  a  salesman.  If  any  man  who  thinks  that  an  Ai  salesman 
is  often  found  in  a  lumber  yard  will  look  around  his  mind 
will  be  disabused  of  the  idea.  As  in  the  cases  cited  above, 
there  are  men  who  can  sell  lumber  to  townspeople  and  who 
fall  down  when  it  comes  to  dealing  with  farmers.  There 
are  others  whose  forte  is  dealing  with  farmers.  Still  there 
are  others  whose  forte  has  not  yet  been  developed.  They  do 
not  know  what  it  is  to  be  a  salesman,  and  have  never  tried 
to  learn.  They  go  at  it  in  an  awkward  way,  sell  lumber 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER: 


when  they  can  and  at  other  times  leave  somebody  else  to 
sell  it.  They  resort  to  no  devices.  To  sell  goods  of  any 
kind  successfully  a  man  must  be  an  inventor.  He  must  be 
able  to  orginate  calchy  methods,  and  while  carrying  them 
out  retain  the  confidence  of  the  purchaser. 

"Selling  lumber,"  said  a  dealer,  "is  a  result  of  keeping 
everlastingly  at  it.  Few  of  us  take  into  account  the  im- 
portance of  personal  influence.  When  I  go  for  a  house  bill 


"Ought  to  have  a  fine  front  door." 

I  start  out  with  the  determination  that  I  will  stick.  I  want 
a  buyer  to  feel  that  I  want  his  trade,  and  that  I  will  put 
myself  out  to  get  it.  I  can  afford  to  follow  him  up  as  long 
as  my  competitor  can.  I  know  a  canvasser  who  says  he 
catches  his  victims  on  'pin  hooks.'  I  sometimes  think  I  am 
guilty  of  the  same  thing.  Last  spring  I  was  trying  to  sell  a 
bill  for  a  thousand-dollar  house.  I  had  seen  the  fellow  two 
or  three  times,  but  didn't  feel  a  bit  confident  that  I  would 
get  his  money.  One  morning  as  he  was  passing  the  office 
I  called  him  in.  I  said  to  him  I  had  been  thinking  that  his 
house,  located  as  it  was  going  to  be,  ought  to  have  a  fine 


THE  RETAILER. 

front  door,  and  setting  out  a  showy  one  I  told  him  I  was 
interested  enough  in  the  appearance  that  his  house  would 
present  to  give  that  door  to  him  if  his  lumber  went  from 
my  yard.  I  could  see  it  took.  'Let's  see,'  said  he,  'how 
much  did  you  figure  the  bill  ?'  I  turned  to  the  estimate  book 
and  gave  him  the  amount.  'All  right,'  said  he,  'I  guess  yoi- 
can  have  it."  I  don't  suppose  my  competitor  and  myself 
were  $4  apart  on  the  bill,  and  I  have  no  doubt  the  gift  of 
the  door  settled  the  matter.  Of  course  I  couldn't  offer  a 
door  to  old  Banker  Jones  who  was  going  to  build  a  man- 
sion and  who  knew  the  ways  of  the  world.  You  must  pick 
your  men." 


KEEPING  THE  POACHER  OUT. 

The  effect  of  the  action  of  those  dealers  in  Chicago  and 
elsewhere  whom  we  call  "poachers,"  and  who  so  often  cause 
the  yard  men  to  sweat  blood,  is  different  on  different  indi- 
viduals. Once  one  of  these  dealers  ships  lumber  into  the 
territory  of  some  yard-  men,  those  yard  men  at  once  apply 
to  their  local  or  general  organization  and  want  to  know 
what  can  be  done  to  head  off  the  villains !  I  have  heard 
many  yard  men  talk  about  the  poachers,  and  it  seemed  to  me 
that  very  often  it  was  random  talk.  The  only  way  to  keep 
them  out  is  to  keep  them  out.  There  is  territory  into  which 
they  never  send  a  car.  The  dealers  rise  up  and  say,  "Nay, 
nay,  Mr.  Poacher !"  and  the  dealers  carry  the  day. 

f*I  wouldn^t  think  I  had  learned  my  business,"  said  a 
yard  man,  "if  I  couldn't  keep  the  poachers  out  of  my  town. 
How  do  I  do  it  ?  Keep  on  good  terms  with  the  contractors. 
These  contractors  know  every  time  when  there  is  any  in- 
tention of  shipping  in  a  bill,  and  I  believe  it  is  rarely  done 
except  on  their  advice.  A  farmer  who  is  going  to  build 
may  get  it  into  his  head  that  he  will  send  away  for  his 
lumJber  just  as  he  often  sends  to  supply  houses  for  other 
goods,  but  he  will  not  do  it  once  in  a  million  times  without 
consulting  his  contractor  or  carpenter.  That  is  where  I 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  103 

get  in  my  work,  by  being  on  good  terms  with  the  contractor. 
If  he  says  to  the  farmer  that  the  poacher  will  manipulate 
the  grades,  which  he  often  does,  or  that  the  bill  will  run 
over  or  under  the  requirements  and  he  will  have  lumber 
left  over,  or  be  obliged  to  fill  in  from  the  local  yards,  which 
nine  times  in  ten  occurs  one  way  or  the  other,  the  farmer 
is  discouraged.  'See'  the  contractor?  Well,  I  had  rather 
'see'  him  to  the  tune  of  several  dollars  than  to  have  a  car 
of  lumber  shipped  in  from  the  outside.  If  I  couldn't  play 
checkers  with  the  poachers  I  would  throw  up  the  sponge." 

A  very  prominent  retail  man  recently  said,  "So  far  as 
the  business  of  these  men  is  concerned,  if  they  sell  to  con- 
sumers only  and  do  not  pretend  to  sell  to  the  retail  trade  it 
is  perfectly  legitimate,  as  I  look  at  it,  but  that  is  not  saying 
that  I  want  them  as  competitors.  Not  one  of  them  has  ever 
made  a  shipment  here,  but  to  keep  them  out  I  have  been 
obliged  to  sell  many  bills  at  small  profit." 

This  yard  man  voices  my  sentiments  exactly.  If  these 
men  want  to  sell  lumber  to  consumers  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States  says  they  may  do  so,  but  that  is  not  say- 
ing we  do  not  want  them  out  of  the  way.  We  want  the 
full  swing  of  trade  ourselves — but  seeing  they  are  in  the 
way  we  must  make  the  best  of  it.  Selfishness  is  at  the  bot- 
tom of  that  great  law  of  self  preservation ;  consequently  if 
we  can  fight  the  poacher  off  we  are  going  to  do  it. 

The  policy  quoted  above  is  that  of  positive,  aggressive 
dealers  who  have  been  successful  in  their  business.  There 
are  others  whose  make-up  does  not  fit  them  to  take  the  bull 
by  the  horns  in  that  way.  A  not  over  confident  yard  man 
talked  to  me  as  though  his  business  would  go  to  the  dem- 
nition  bowwows  because  a  couple  of  barn  bills  had  been 
shipped  into  his  territory.  He  thought  it  was  the  one 
deadly  drawback  to  the  lumber  business.  He  was  a  young 
man,  so  I  stroked  my  blond  mustache  and  said  to  him  that 
he  should  not  be  ready  to  give  up  the  ghost  at  this  early 
stage  of  the  game.  I  told  him  that  few  men  ever  got  to 
the  top  of  the  ladder  without  slipping  back  a  rung  now  and 


104  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

then  in  rainy  weather.  It  was  ascertained,  however,  that 
this  dealer  did  not  stand  pat  with  the  contractors  of  his 
town.  Some  of  the  very  men  who  could  be  of  service  to  him 
in  these  emergencies  he  had  estranged.  That  won't  do, 
beloved.  We  must  make  friends  of  these  contractors.  In 
an  office  that  was  visited  not  long  ago  the  cigars  were 
handed  out  to  three  contractors  who  came  in,  one  after  the 
other,  and,  what  was  satisfying,  the  box  was  not  returned 
to  its  place  without  being  held  out  to  me.  I  said  to  my'self, 
"That  yard  man  is  a  good  fellow;"  and  do  you  not  suppose 
the  contractors  thought  the  same  thing?  When  you  want 
to  catch  mice  in  a  trap  you  bait  it,  don't  you  ? 

This  kind  of  talk,  I  am  aware,  will  not  go  with  certain 
yard  men.  Not  a  month  ago  I  heard  a  dealer  damning  the 
contractors.  He  said  the  less  he  had  to  do  with  them  the 
better ;  he  wanted  the  farmers'  trade.  On  general  principles 
I  do  not  fancy  this  damning  business,  and  I  doubt  if  the 
wisest  men  damn  anybody.  Diplomacy,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, is  better  than  swear  words.  The  average  contractor 
is  as  anxious  to  get  along  as  smootnly  and  successfully  with 
his  work  as  the  rest  of  us  are.  Make  a  composite  man  of 
those  who  are  engaged  in  the  different  legitimate  callings 
and  each  man  would  about  fit  the  same  mold. 

A  Kansas  yard  man  remarked  that  a  certain  contractor 
was  one  of  the  meanest  men  to  whom  he  had  ever  sold  lum- 
ber, yet  he  said  he  sold  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  man 
in  town. 

"How  do  you  get  along  with  him  ?"  was  asked. 

"Watch  him,"  was  .the  reply. 


•REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  105 

SELLING  LUMBER  FROM  SAMPLE. 

The  idea  has  been  broached  by  several  dealers  that  it 
might  be  a  good  thing  to  have  an  office  in  the  center  of 
town  where  samples  would  be  kept  while  the  stock  would 
lie  piled  on  cheaper  ground  outside.  One  dealer  asks :  "Has 
this  system  been  tried?" 

One  dealer  said :  "I  would  have  everything  down  town, 
both  office  and  lumber,  but  I  would  not  separate  them.  To 
follow  out  the  modern  way  of  handling  lumber  no  great 
amount  of  land  is  required.  The  consumer  of  lumber  is 
not  used  to  purchasing  from  sample.  I  will  admit  he  might 
as  well — but  he  is -not  used  to  it.  If  he  wants  only  a  half 
dozen  boards  he  wants  to  see  piles  of  lumber.  Piles  and 
piles  of  it  seem  to  impress  him.  It  does  him  good  to  go 
out  in  the  yard  and  have  you  tumble  over  lumber  for  him, 
and  then  if  he  thinks  he  is  getting  the  cream  of  it  he  is 
jolly.  I  like  to  manage  so  that  every  one  of  my  customers 
thinks  he  is  getting  the  cream  of  my  stock.  You  can  convey 
that  impression  pretty  often,  too,  if  you  make  an  effort  in 
that  direction." 

This  is  one  man's  opinion.  It  sounds  sensible  enough 
and  represents  a  judgment  that  for  maturity  is  far  above 
the  average ;  yet  if  I  wanted  to  sell  lumber  from  a  down 
to\vn  office  and  store  my  stock  on  cheap  ground  elsewhere 
I  would  be  guided  by  no  man's  opinion.  "Where  has  it 
been  done?"  or  "Who  has  tried  it?"  cuts  no  figure.  The 
man  who  always  has  an  eye  out  for  precedent  never  wins 
in  a  big  way.  Genius  repudiates  precedent.  This  has  been 
proved  in  business  life  a  thousand  times.  In  the  literary 
world  the  great  writers  of  our  age  have  given  it  to  prece- 
dent right  in  the  neck.  If  a  yard  man  feels  that 
he  has  a  genius  to  sell  lumber  by  sample  he  need  ask  no 
man's  consent.  A  trial  will  determine  whether  the  method 
is  practical  in  his  case,  and  in  no  other  way  can  it  be  deter- 
mined. \Ve  must  throw  our  personality  into  our  work  if 
we  would  succeed.  One  man  is  more  to  himself  than  all 


io6  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

others  can  be  to  him.  He  is  the  ego,  the  power,  .  How  would 
others  do  it  if  they  were  working  at  his  job,  isn't  the  ques- 
tion to  ask.  Once  a  man  feels  that  he  is  right  he  should  go 
ahead  and  let  the  world  wag  as  it  will,  and  let  tongues  also 
wag  as  they  will.  Every  man  has  his  work  to  do,  and  if 
he  does  it  by  reflected  light  it  will  lack  character  and  deter- 
mination. 

"I  took  the  bull  by  the  horns  when  I  located  in  the  center 
of  the  town,"  said  a  live  Minnesota  yard  man.  "It  was 
tradition  to  establish  yards  on  railroads,  no  matter  if 
the  roads  only  touched  the  limits  of  a  town,  and  the  first 
argument  I  heard  was  that  I  would  have  to  haul  all  my 
lumber  from  the  track  to  my  yard !  What  a  piece  of  news 
that  was !  I  had  become  tired  of  selling  merchandise  where 
the  people  would  be  obliged  to  go  and  look  me  up." 

"Well,  they  don't  have  to  look  you  up  now,"  I  re- 
marked as  I  glanced  up  at  the  magnificent  shed  front,  and 
not  half  a  block  away  saw  dry  goods  stores  with  throngs  of 
women  going  out  and  in.  "That  was  what  I  was  after," 
was  the  laconic  reply. 

This  man  felt  the  want  and  he  had  the  courage  to  fill 
it.  Today  his  position  is  envied  by  his  brother  dealers.  At 
the  time  he  broke  ground  for  his  new  plant  those  same 
brother  dealers  would  have  said  he  was  a  lunatic.  The 
audacity,  to  smash  down  the  old  orthodox  fence  in  that 
manner! 

The  intensely  personal  man  who  does  not  hesitate  to 
drive  new  stakes  is  the  maker  of  history.  The  world  may 
make  faces  at  him,  but  he  regards  it  as  the  act  of  vacant 
minds.  On  and  on  he  goes,  and  always  with  him  is  that 
satisfying  thought  that  instead  of  playing  ape  he  is  making 
use  of  the  ability  which  his  Maker  has  placed  in  his  keeping. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  107 

THE  SCHOOL  THAT  WOULD  PLEASE  THE  YARD 

MAN. 

A  retail  dealer  was  telling  me  that  a  knowledge  of  human 
nature  ought  to  protect  the  lumberman  from  loss  in  his 
dealings  with  people.  "I  believe,"  he  said,  "that  unrelia- 
bility is  written  on  the  face  of  every  person  who  is  not 
reliable.  I  am  not  speaking  of  those  people  who  through  some 
misfortune  cannot  pay ;  but  there  are  slick  fellows  in  every 
community  who  live  at  the  expense  of  others  and  whose 
object  it  is  to  beat  their  way  through  the  world.  They  are 
not  known  as  deadbeats  except  by  the  tradesmen  who  have 
learned  them.  They  wear  good  clothes,  pass  in  society,  and 
perhaps  pray  as  loud  as  the  rest  of  us.  Have  I  been  caught 
by  them  ?  I  have  to  the  tune  of  as  many  dollars  as  would 
take  me  to  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition.  There  is 
a  lawyer  in  this  town  who  got  into  me  $24  before  I  had 
hardly  opened  my  doors.  You  can't  collect  24  cents  from 
him.  Yet  he  does  business  right  along  and  passes  for  a 
decent  citizen.  He  has  the  art  of  regretting  down  fine. 
Suggest  to  him  that  he  pay  and  apparently  he  is  the  sorriest 
fellow  in  seven  counties  because  he  is  unable  to  do  so.  I 
can  now  read  in  his  face  that  he  never  means  to  pay  any- 
body if  he  can  help  it.  I  tell  you  what  kind  of  a  school 
I  wish  my  boy  could  attend — one  where  phrenology,  physi- 
ognomy and  good  horse  sense  were  taught.  Let  the  blank 
Latin  and  higher  mathematics  go  to  thunder.  The  greatest 
misfortune  which  has  ever  come  to  me  in  a  business  way 
was  due  to  my  inability  to  read  men.  Give  an  industrious 
boy  a  knowledge  of  the  common  school  studies  and  men, 
and  I  believe  he  is  well  -equipped  for  life.  Somehow  the 
frills  don't  appear  to  do  us  much  good  when  it  comes  down 
to  earning  a  living." 

It  was  a  short  little  sermon,  but  I  know  it  will  appeal 
to  the  good  sense  of  many  a  man.  The  most  of  you  have 
standing  accounts  on  your  books  which  will  continue  to 
stand,  all  owing  to  your  inability  to  read  the  faces  of  the 


108  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

people  whose  names  are  at  the  head  of  them.  And  after 
all  if  we  only  know  how  to  read  faces  very  often  they  are  as 
an  open  book — they  can  readily  be  graded  from  culls  to  clear 
finish. 


GRADES    IN    YARD    MEN. 

There  are  grades  and  grades  in  lumber  as  we  all  know. 
We  know,  too,  that  for  years  they  have  been  deteriorating 
right  along.  And  while  grades  of  lumber  have  gone  down 
hill  the  men  who  deal  in  it  have  been  climbing  up  the  hill. 
Words  accurately  describing  the  high  grade  lumbermen  to- 
day would  appear  fulsome.  Those  lumbermen  are  reaching 
out  in  more  than  one  direction.  The  other  day  I  sat  down 
with  a  yard  man,  and  he  filled  my  heart  with  joy.  It  is 
acknowledged  that  he  is  an  expert  in  his  line,  but  press 
the  right  button  and  lo,  the  other  side  of  the  man  appears. 
jHe  is  no  longer  a  lumberman.  He  talks  about  music,  liter- 
ature, the  destiny  of  the  human  soul.  His  sympathies  reach 
out  and  embrace  the  unfortunate.  I  wonder  why  it  can't 
be  so  with  more  of  us?  I  get  tired  of  the  hard  features  of 
business  life.  So  many  imagine  that  "business"  must  be 
unfeeling;  that  it  must  dull  our  finer  senses;  that  it  does 
not  march  in  the  procession  with  sentiment,  heart,  and  the 
golden  rule;  that  unless  we  talk  shop  morning,  noon  and 
night  we  are  coming  down  from  the  pedestal  on  which  the 
ideal  business  man  stands.  That  is  dead  wrong,  my  friends. 
We  do  business  that  we  may  have  a  livelihood.  It  should 
stand  in  the  way  of  neither  our  moral  nor  our  intellectual 
growth.  It  should  not  retard  our  preparation  for  the  life 
which  every  sane  man  hopes  may  follow  this  one.  It  is  a 
means  to  the  end,  and  to  a  noble  end,  too,  but  when  business 
is  a  great  scythe  that  mows  down  the  man  I  pity  the  man. 

Then  when  it  comes  to  the  finesse,  as  we  Frenchmen 
say,  of  the  lumber  business  the  most  of  it  has  been  learned 
within  a  few  years  comparatively.  The  retail  men  have 
gone  forward  in  this  regard  as  have  the  wholesale  men, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  109 

Not  many  years  ago  lumber  at  both  retail  and  wholesale 
was  sold  by  main  strength  and  awkwardness.  Boards — that 
was  all  lumber  was.  The  dealer  did  not  lie  awake  nights 
devising  some  way  to  manipulate  those  boards  so  they  would 
bring  more  money.  It  was  not  thought  it  was  any  more 
necessary  to  cover  piles  of  lumber  than  though  they  were 
stone  piles.  Let  the  elements  and  thieves  prey  upon  them. 
I  should  like  to  see  a  yard  of  twenty  years  ago  set  down 
alongside  of  one  that  could  be  selected  today.  How  much 
difference  do  you  think  there  would  be  between  them?  As 
much  as  there  is  between  the  old  Rocket  and  a  modern  loco- 
motive that  makes  a  mile  in  less  than  a  minute.  In  the  one 
there  would  be  a  paucity  of  stocks  and  grades,  housed  under 
the  sky;  in  the  other  hundreds  of  items  carefully  selected 
for  specific  purposes,  and  as  carefully  stored.  In  the  one 
the  yard  man  would  be  pottering  around,  selling  lumber 
when  he  could,  and  when  he  ran  short  corresponding  with 
some  one  mill  man  for  a  further  supply.  In  the  other  the 
dealer  would  have  an  eye  to  the  north,  south  and  west  for 
the  material  he  wanted,  as  well  as  an  eye  to  the  sash  and 
door  factory  that  would  give  him  the  best  and  cheapest  job 
in  finish.  To  be  an  up-to-date  retail  lumberman  these  days 
a  man  must  be  a  merchant ;  if  he  is  a  slobmagullion  he  will 
lack  furlongs  of  being  up  to  date.  To  do  a  successful 
retail  business  implies  sizing  up,  reaching  out  and  mastering 
men  to  a  certain  extent. 

The  lumber  yard  will  no  doubt  go  right  on  improving. 
In  a  certain  town  a  visitor  who  was  unacquainted  with  sheds 
would  say  there  was  no  lumber  yard  there.  There  is  not  a 
board  or  stick  of  timber  in  sight.  There  is  an  immense 
building  that  would  attract  attention,  but  tear  the  sign  down 
and  the  novice  would  not  know  but  it  was  a  structure  in 
which  they  stored  grain  or  made  beer.  .  And  when  I  went  in 
the  man  in  charge  was  sweeping.  Think  of  a  house  broom 
for  cleaning  up  a  lumber  shedj  A  few  years  ago  they 
wouldn't  have  used  a  scraper,  to  say  nothing  about  a  broom. 
Mud,  dust,  dirt  and  rats  it  was  thought  belonged  to  it. 


i  to  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

The  department  store  idea  more  and  more  keeps  running 
through  the  noddles  of  yard  men.  There  are  leaders  in  the 
business  who  are  alive  to  a  premonition  that  they  will  be 
obliged  to  carry  a  more  varied  stock  than  they  are  now 
carrying.  There  are,  indeed,  those  who  think  they  will  be 
forced  to  carry  about  everything  in  the  building  line.  There 
are  yard  men  who  argue  that  the  coming  yard  will  be  less 
numerous  than  is  the  present  one,  and  that  it  will  require  a 
capital  of  from  $15,000  to  $25,000  to  conduct  a  decent  lum- 
ber business,  instead  of  a  half  or  a  quarter  of  that  amount  as 
is  the  rule  today.  In  my  opinion  there  will  be  more  yards 
instead  of  fewer ;  still  I  do  not  claim  to  be  able  to  see  farther 
into  a  block  of  granite  than  the  rest  of  you.  Nothing  except 
death  and  taxes  is  more  certain,  however,  than  that  there 
are  men  in  business  at  this  time  who,  if  they  hold  a  place 
in  trade,  will  have  to  pick  up  their  ears  and  heels.  They 
may  keep  along  in  a  one-yard  town  where  there  is  no  com- 
petition, lounge  around  at  some  street  corner  resort  and 
talk  politics,  but  by  and  by  when  the  burg  shall  increase 
in  size  and  a  live  dealer  shall  come  in  the  old  musty  bones 
will  have  to  hustle,  else  they  will  go  underground  in  the 
business  graveyard. 

Do  you  know  that  men  are  smart  these  days?  They 
keep  an  eye  on  the  ground  to  learn  what  may  be  approach- 
ing. I  expect  they  will  go  on  getting  smarter  and  shrewder. 
We  have  reached  a  point  now  where  those  qualities  begin  to 
tell  in  our  offspring.  There  are  boys  that  are  smarter  than 
chain  lightning.  It  is  surprising  how  many  young  men 
control  big  affairs.  They  are  slicker  than  the  old  stock,  and 
often  faster. 


THE   RAGE   FOR   BIG   TOWNS. 

It  amuses  me  to  see  how  many  foolish  things  are  said  by 
the  metropolitan  newspapers,  one  reason  for  these  foolish 
things,  no  doubt,  being  that  we,  the  foolish  readers  of  them, 
demand  that  they  be  said.  Just  now  we  are  running  wild 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  in 

over  the  population  of  our  cities.  The  city  that  has  not 
increased  in  size  since  the  last  census  enumeration  is  made 
to  feel  disgraced,  and  those  which  have  had  an  increase  of 
from  75  to  200  percent  are  held  up  as  fit  locations  for  the 
Xew  Jerusalem.  Wherein  is  there  more  honor  for  a  city  to 
have  100,000  inhabitants  than  half  of  that  number?  What 
special  virtue  is  there  in  a  crowd  of  people?  Where  the 
special  virtue  would  come  in  would  be  for  a  quarter  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  big  cities  to  get  out  of  them.  That  would 
be  something  worth  talking  about.  Let  them  get  out  on 
the  broad  prairies  and  raise  corn  and  hogs  and  have  enough 
to  eat  the  year  round.  There  would  be  solid  and  special 
virtue  in  that,  but  we  do  not  have  the  good  sense  to  shout 
for  it.  We  can  shout  for  nothing  but  the  big  aggregation — 
for  the  unnatural,  the  buncombe. 

We  are  laying  the  emphasis  on  the  wrong  portion  of  our 
people.  If  the  country  districts  show  no  increase  in  popu- 
lation no  one  will  cry  out.  Not  a  word  of  regret  will  be 
heard.  This  tends  to  pain  me.  Since  I  have  become  a 
bloated  land-owner,  and  in  addition  own  an  old  black  cow,  a 
dog  and  some  hens  and  roosters,  I  cannot  with  good  grace 
hear  a  thing  slightingly  said  of  the  man  with  the  hoe,  for 
I  am  somewhat  he.  Last  spring  I  bought  a  fine  hoe,  with  a 
red  tag  on  the  handle,  with  which  to  hoe  a  patch  of  cabbage. 
When  I  would  appear  dressed  like  a  fashion  plate  among 
the  yard  men  of  a  town  little  would  they  think  that  perhaps 
not  twenty-four  hours  before  I  was  bending  over  the  hoe. 
I  hoed  the  cabbage  faithfully.  The  worms  ate  them  all  up, 
but  I  saved  the  hoe,  and  I  can  prove  it. 

WTiat  you  most  want,  beloved,  is  that  outsiders  shall  let 
your  business  alone  and  permit  you  to  sell  lumber  at  retail. 
What  I  .don't  care  a  rap  is  whether  one  town  has  a  citizen 
or  two  more  than  some  other  town  or  not,  but  I  do  want 
every  town  to  have  a  good  steam-heated  hotel,  pretty  dining- 
room  girls  and  cushioned  Abuses  in  which  to  ride  to  and 
from  the  stations.  As  for  myself,  I  have  seen  all  the  crowds 
I  want  to.  I  wouldn't  give  a  nickel  to  look  upon  "a  sea  of 


ii2  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

upturned  faces"  that  would  cover  a  township.  In  the  lives 
of  all  of  us,  provided  we  do  not  go  insane  up  to  that  time, 
there  should  come  a  period  when  it  is  more  of  an  object  to 
pass  along  comfortably  than  it  is  to  have  our  ribs  stove  in. 

If  there  is  enough  vitality  in  our  blood  to  withstand  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  a  few  ages  hence  those  in  whose 
veins  it  shall  course  will  be  praying  for  fewer  people,  as 
they  are  in  China  today,  instead  of  cracking  their  heels 
together  because  their  towns  show  a  majority  over  some 
other  towns.  I  trust  that  our  descendants  may  know  more 
than  we  do. 

METHODS    OF    BUYING    YARDS. 

There  are  ways  and  ways  of  buying  and  selling  lumber 
yards.  A  retail  dealer  told  me  he  could  sell  at  40  percent 
premium  on  his  inventory.  You  know  of  course  what  a 
condition  like  that  implies.  The  yard  is  doing  a  steady 
and  profitable  business  and  is  in  every  respect  desirable.  A 
yard  man  not  long  ago  sold  at  a  premium  of  $2  a  thousand 
on  the  lumber  in  pile  over  and  above  the  price  it  cost  to 
lay  it  where  it  was.  I  suppose  he  had  on  hand  400,000  feet, 
the  bonus  amounting  to  $800.  Another  yard  man  when  ap- 
proached on  the  subject  of  selling  replied,  "That  shed  there 
cost  me  $250;  -if  you  want  to  invoice  it  at  $1,200  we  will 
call  it  a  go." 

There  are  retail  men  who  repudiate  all  this  premium 
business.  They  say  that  a  man  is.  not  wise  to  pay  a  pre- 
mium for  a  business ;  that  the  good  will  of  a  business  is  an 
asset  which  is  of  little  value;  that  it  was  the  man  that 
made  the  business  and  he  is  not  sold  with  the  outfit.  If 
these  men  prefer  to  start  a  new  yard  to  paying  a  premium 
for  one  already  established  that  is  their  business.  There  are 
others  who  are  willing  to  break  into  the  trade  on  the  pre- 
mium plan.  After  a  good  deal  of  rubbing  up  against  the 
yard  man  and  knowing  the  value  they  place  on  their  busi- 
ness, under  ordinary  circumstances  I  should  not  expect  to 
be  able  to  buy  a  desirable  yard  in  six  months  .without  paying 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  113 

more  for  it  than  the  invoices  of  the  goods  showed.  I  was 
told  on  what  short  notice  a  yard  was  sold.  The  man  who 
bought  it  was  a  stranger  in  the  town.  He  looked  around, 
saw  the  yard  that  suited  him,  went  in  and  struck  up  a  con- 
versation with  the  owner.  They  walked  around,  and  the 
newcomer  saw  what  there  was  in  stock.  Incidentally,  ap- 
parently, the  yard  man  was  asked  if  he  had  any  desire  to  sell 
out,  and  replied  he  had  never  had  anything  yet,  except  his 
wife  and  children,  that  he  wouldn't  sell.  He  was  asked  how 
much  he  would  take,  and  a  lump  sum  was  named.  "I  will 
take  it,"  said  the  stranger.  "Here  is  $500;  draw  up  a  con- 
tract and  I  will  take  possession  next  Monday  and  pay  you 
the  balance  of  the  purchase  price." 

That  was  the  way  the  bargain  was  struck  and  so  far 
as  I  have  learned  both  parties  were  satisfied.  "No  doubt," 
said  a  yard  man  who  was  speaking  of  the  deal,  "the  original 
owner  of  the  yard  set  his  price  so  that  he  was  safe;  but, 
really,  how  much  of  a  figure  does  $500  or  $600  cut  when  it 
comes  to  buying  a  business  that  suits  you?  It  amounts  to 
nothing.  I  know  a  dealer  who  was  looking  for  a  yard  and 
he  tried  to  strike  a  bargain  with  the  owner  of  one  of  the 
best  yards  in  his  section,  but  a  bonus  of  $800  was  asked.  I 
believe  the  other  fellow  offered  $500.  They  couldn't  get 
together  and  the  man  bought  a  yard  in  a  nearby  town  and 
was  glad  to  get  rid  of  it  again  in  less  than  twelve  months. 
Then  he  was  out  again  looking  for  another  location." 

When  speaking  on  this  subject  a  yard  man  recited  an 
experience  that  was  interesting — decidedly  so  to  him  at 
the  time.  "It  was  a  one-yard  town,"  said  this  dealer,  "and 
a  good  one,  too.  I  talked  purchase  and  found  I  could  buy 
the  yard  by  paying  $900  more  than  I  thought  the  thing  was 
worth.  You  know  when  we  are  buying  we  want  everything 
inventoried  low,  and  when  we  sell  we  want  it  as  high  as  the 
law  will  allow.  This  man  owned  his  yard  ground,  with  an 
acre  adjoining  which  he  used  for  his  horse  pasture.  For  the 
land  he  wanted  a  few  hundred  dollars  more  than  I  wanted 
to  pay.  Then  I  thought  he  ran  his  office  and  shed  up  a  little 


114  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

above  the  normal.  Instead  of  paying  him  his  price,  and 
having  the  whole  thing  my  own  way,  I  put  in  a  second  yard 
and  was  glad  to  get  out  in  less  than  eighteen  months.  That 
man  stayed  there  for  years,  had  a  good  business  right  along 
and  no  doubt  the  real  estate  is  worth  four  times  as  much 
as  it  was  when  I  was  so  fool-headed  I  did  not  buy  it.  A  good 
thing  is  worth  a  good  price ;  when  we  forget  that  we  are  apt 
to  make  some  poor  bargains." 


THE  ARBITRATION  IDEA. 

This  idea  of  arbitration  is  becoming  more  and  more  in 
favor.  When  two  nations  feel  like  giving  it  to  one  another 
under  the  fifth  rib  with  powder  and  ball  the  plea  is  made  by 
many  that  it  is  silly  to  do  such  a  thing,  and  that  they  would 
better  let  some  disinterested  nation  say  how  the  difficulty 
shall  be  settled.  That  is  the  civilized  way  of  it,  there  is  no 
question  about  that.  In  our  best  and  thoughtful  moments 
we  all  see  it  in  that  light.  Away  back  they  didn't  think  so, 
however.  If  we  had  lived  then,  and  I  had  not  agreed  with 
you,  your  friends  might  have  poured  melted  lead  into  my 
ears  and  down' my  throat  to  convince  me  what's  what.  It 
was  not  uncommon  for  good  men  to  fill  other  good  men  with 
lead  in  that  way.  When  we  read  history  we  see  it  has  often 
been  reputably  good  men — God-fearing  men — who  have 
raised  special  deviltry  in  the  way  of  torturing  and  killing 
their  neighbors.  I  know  if  I  had  lived  in  those  days  the 
logic  of  the  situation  would  have  forced  me  to  be  a  holy  ter- 
ror, for  then  I  could  have  avoided  being  tortured  myself 
and  having  to  torture  others.  The  worst  men  out  of  the 
box  are  on  record  as  cutting  the  fewest  throats. 

The  idea  of  filling  people  with  lead  has  followed  right 
down  from  those  old  days.  When  it  reached  a  point  where 
the  offenders  could  not  easily  be  caught  and  the  lead  poured 
into  them  the  gun  was  invented,  and  thus  the  lead  was  made 
to  chase  them  up.  It  is  the  same  idea,  only  slightly  modi- 
fied. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  115 

1  could  name  several  places  where  this  arbitration  idea 
ought  to  be  in  force  in  the  retail  lumber  line.  "I  will  give 
you  so  much,"  said  a  yard  man  to  me,  naming  an  amount, 
"if  you  will  get  my  competitors  to  sign  a  document  binding 
them  to  sell  material  at  certain  prices."  I  looked  at  the  man. 
He  appeared  sane  enough ;  at  any  rate  he  was  out  of  the  in- 
sane asylum.  He  had  a  head  in  which,  to  judge  from  out- 
ward appearances,  there  was  a  place  for  brains.  If  a  man 
should  tell  him  he  didn't  know  beans  when  the  bag  was 
untied  he  would  resent  it  as  an  insult.  Then  I  went  around 
and  visited  his  competitors.  They,  too,  were  decent  looking 
men.  They  had  been  furnished  with  domes  of  thought  like 
the  rest  of  us.  I  would  guarantee  that  in  a  horse  trade  they 
would  be  as  shrewd  as  gypsies.  One  of  them  told  me  how 
he  had  helped  along  an  improvement  in  his  town  in  a  cer- 
tain direction.  I  know  if  I  had  been  broke  he  would  have 
loaned  me  a  dollar.  I  looked  them  all  over,  talked  with 
them,  and  then  went  to  the  hotel  and  did  a  bit  of  musing. 

"Here  are  three  men,"  I  thought,  "who  would  kick  me 
out  of  the  office  if  I  should  go  back  and  say  to  them  that  they 
do  not  know  enough  to  eat  pudding  when  it  is  set  before 
them.  Surrounded  by  a  good  territory,  furnishing  all  the 
lumber  that  is  consumed  in  a  thrifty  little  city,  yet  they  are 
hauling  and  pulling  like  so  many  unbroken  steers.  Then 
again,  they  have  it  all  to  themselves — only  three  of  them — 
and  they  have  the  whole  shooting  match  right  in  their  hands. 
Why  don't  they  arbitrate  their  differences?  They  needn't 
call  me,  or  anybody  else,  in  to  do  it.  If  they  have  a  spark 
of  common  sense  in  their  heads  that  should  be  the  arbi- 
trator. Why  don't  they  ring  the  old  town  bell^  get  together, 
and  having  come  together  pull  together  ?" 

I  thought  on  in  this  mild  and  inoffensive  way  about  these 
fellows  until  supper  was  ready.  You  see  the  Old  Scratch 
was  raised  when  the  third  man  came  into  this  town.  The 
new  lumberman  is  often  a  cake  of  yeast  that  will  raise  any- 
thing. Do  you  suppose  that  this  new  man  came  here  and 
engaged  in  selling  lumber  just  for  fun  ?  He  would  be  likely 


ii6  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

to  do  that  very  thing,  wouldn't  he?  The  two  dealers  thought 
he  had  no  business  here  and  set  about  to  crowd  him  out. 
Why  didn't  they  telephone  him  to  come  over,  tell  him  they 
were  glad  to  make  his  acquaintance,  ask  him  to  meet  them 
that  evening  at  the  best  restaurant  in  town,  and  then  when 
they  were  all  stuffed  with  grub  and  feeling  happy  say  to  him, 
"Jim,  we'll  own  right  up  it  doesn't  suit  us  your  coming  here, 
but  here  you  are,  and  we  must  make  the  best  of  it.  We  are 
good  Americans,  good  Christians ;  therefore  it  would  go 
against  the  grain  to  do  you  dirt.  Now  let's  get  together  in 
some  way  that  will  be  fair  all  around,  live  like  neighbors 
and  do  business  like  sensible  men." 

That  kind  of  talk  would  have  suited  Jim,  or  anybody 
else.  It  doesn't  take  much  of  a  blow  to  smash  that  icicle 
that  hangs  between  so  many  of  us.  Often  we  are  offish, 
independent,  and  sag  back  like  a  balky  horse,  because  we 
think  the  other  fellow  delights  in  showing  the  same  quali- 
ties, and  often  he  cuts  up  in  a  like  manner  for  the  purpose 
of  duplicating  us.  If  we  would  walk  right  up  and  let  the 
man  shine  out  of  us  instead  of  letting  that  miserable  little 
devil,  selfishness,  claw  around  in  our  brains  and  muddle 
them,  nine  times  in  ten  the  other  fellow  would  meet  us  half 
way.  Take  that  yard  man  who  asked  me  to  act  as  peace- 
maker; he  was  ready  to  meet  his  competitors  but  he  did 
not  think  they  were  ready  to  meet  him.  For  aught  he  knew 
they  were  as  ready  as  he  was. 

How  I  do  wish  that  the  retail  lumbermen  in  many  a 
town  could  see  this  matter  in  the  light  as  here  presented. 
I  know  they  would  feel  better  in  every  respect.  Especially 
when  they  invoiced,  they  would  feel  glad  to  know  that  they 
had  made  more  dollars  than  they  would  had  they  played 
the  part  of  the  dog  in  the  manger.  Life  is  too  short  for 
these  little  tuppenny  trade  differences  and  jealousies  to  be 
given  rein.  They  should  be  cracked  on  the  head  every  time 
they  bob  up. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  117 

DIVISION  OF  SHED  BINS. 

This  is  the  way  I  recently  saw  it  done :  Suppose  you 
place  uprights,  2x4,  or  even  lighter  material,  in  the  front 
and  back  of  your  bins,  thus  forming  divisions,  each  of  which 
will  hold  a  6,  8,  10  or  12  inch  board,  as  the  case  may  be. 
You  are  piling,  say,  lo-inch  finish.  Instead  of  carrying  up 
the  pile  several  boards  wide,  as  is  ordinarily  done,  you  pile 
the  lumber  between  two  of  these  uprights,  gaged  to  accom- 
modate a  loinch  board,  and  continue  to  pile  it  as  high  as  the 
bin  if  you  so  choose.  Then  you  can  handle  your  other 
widths  of  finish,  flooring  and  siding — or  other  grades,  if  you 
desire — in  the  same  way. 

No  doubt  in  your  mind's  eye  you  have  already  seen  the 
advantage.  The  pile  is  never  tumbling  over.  It  is  there 
to  stay  for  the  very  good  reason  that  it  is  held  in  place.  In 
the  hands  of  some  men  the  boards  in  a  pile  of  lumber  seem- 
ingly have  as  many  legs  as  a  caterpillar.  They  are  all  the 
time  on  the  move,  getting  out  of  line,  and  even  off  the  pile. 
I  saw  a  pile  of  6-inch  stuff  that  had  been  put  up  four  boards 
wide,  and  possibly  five  feet  high.  In  selling  from  this  pile 
three  widths  had  been  taken  down  nearly  to  the  foundation, 
leaving  the  other  standing,  and  over  that  had  tumbled.  It 
looked  like  a  blasted  rose  in  January.  If  there  had  been  a 
partition  between  each  width  this  would  not  have  happened. 
Of  course,  the  lath  for  sticking  will  have  to  be  cut  to  tally 
with  the  width  of  the  board  on  which  it  is  used. 

This  system  of  piling  did  not  appear  to  be  regarded  with 
any  particular  favor  in  the  yard  in  which  it  is  used.  A 
former  employee  had  put  in  the  partitions — and  that  was 
all  there  was  to  it.  The  next  day  I  explained  it  to  a  yard 
man  fifty  miles  from  the  town  in  which  I  saw  it,  and  he  took 
to  it  like  a  fish  to  water.  "Why,  cf  course,"  said  he,  "that 
is  just  the  thing.  Why  didn't  I  think  cf  it  before?  I  often 
want  to  keep  several  grades  in  one  bin,  and  that  system 
solves  it.  You  can  put  the  different  grades  side  by  side,  and 


ii8  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

they  won't  mix,  and  you  know  where  to  put  your  hand  right 
on  them." 

"Well,  what  are  the  disadvantages?"  I  asked,  wanting  to 
get  at  the  unfavorable  side. 

"I  see  none,"  was  the  reply,  "except  that  piling  might  be 
a  trifle  slower,  and  when  loading  the  boards  could  not  be 
handled  with  hardly  the  freedom  that  they  could  when  not 
confined  so  closely." 

You  never  know  what  will  hit  a  man.  This  yard  man 
was  enthusiastic  over  this  little  kink  which  costs  to  introduce 
it  only  a  small  amount,  and  which  will  save  room  and  labor. 
It  is  good  for  a  lazy  man  for  he  has  no  piles  to  even  up. 
Once  -up  they  are  always  up  until  they  are  sold  and  cleared 
away. 


PLEASING  THE  FARMER  CUSTOMER. 

There  was  no  business  going  on  and  we  had  whittled 
until  our  knives  were  tired  out.  We  had  told  each  other 
from  what  section  of  country  we  hailed  and  how  many  chil- 
dren we  had.  It  does  not  take  two  men  long  when  whit- 
tling to  become  acquainted,  even  familiar,  and  I  imagine  it 
is  because  they  are  engaged  in  the  same  democratic  occu- 
pation. If  one  were  whittling  and  the  other  doing  some- 
thing else  it  would  take  them  longer  to  get.  together,  if, 
indeed,  they  ever  got  together.  It  is  a  grand  thing  for 
people  to  regard  themselves  as  standing  on  common  ground, 
for  it  is  only  then  that  their  sympathies  are  akin.  When  I 
feel  that  I  am  o<n  a  reserved  seat  and  you  on  the  bleaching 
board,  or  vice  versa,  there  is  a  long  and  deep  chasm  be- 
tween us.  There  is  never  the  difference  between  us  that  in 
our  dejected  or  high-headed  moments  we  think  there  is,  but 
we  get  it  in  our  minds  there  is  and  act  accordingly.  , 

This  yard  man  had  something  to  say  about  the  way  he 
"tickled"  his  customers,  as  he  expressed  it.  "Nearly  all 
my  trade — or  at  least  eight-tenths  of  it — is  farmer  trade," 
said  he,  "and  it  requires  some  tact  to  handle  it.  The  farmer 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  119 

is  'agin'  those  people  who  consider  themselves  above  him 
socially.  If  you  notice,  it  is  the  farming  community  against 
the  town  right  along.  Give  the  farmers  the  chance  to  vote 
for  somebody  for  local  office  who  is  not  regarded  as  a  'town 


"Told  how  many  children  we  had." 


man,'  and  see  how  quick  they  do  it  every  time.  One  thing; 
I  have  aimed  to  dress  so  that  my  farmer  customers  would 
take  no  exception  on  that  score.  I  don't  want  them  to  think 
I  am  stuck  up." 

I  felt  a  little  uneasy  during  the  latter  part  of  these 
comments.  Just  before  I  started  out  on  that  trip  I  had 
bought  a  flaming  necktie  which  cost  me  35  cents,  had  the 
creases  pressed  down  my  pants  legs,  and  that  morning  had 
paid  a  dime  to  have  my  shoes  shined  so  that  I  could  see  my 
face  in  them.  Almost  involuntarily  I  tucked  my  tie  out  of 
sight  down  under  my  waistcoat,  as  I  learned  in  polite 
English  society  to  call  my  vest. 

"When  we  go  in,"  the  yard  man  continued,  "I  will  show 
you  my  tobacco  box  and  pipes.  I  never  set  up  the  cigars, 
as  a  common  thing;  they  cost  too  much  and  don't  fill  the 
bill.  There  are  a  good  many  pipes  full  of  tobacco  in  a 


120 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


quarter  pound  of  tobacco  that  costs  ten  cents.  I  buy  a 
cheap  corncob  pipe  by  the  gross,  and  then  when  the  farmer 
has  smoked  his  fill  he  puts  the  pipe  in  his  pocket  if  he 
wants  to  and  thinks  he  has  been  well  treated.  It  is  not 
unusual  when  one  of  my  customers  comes  to  town  for  him 
to  hitch  his  horses,  come  in  and  get  his  smoke.  It  partakes 
of  a  social  feature  with  them.  I  tell  the  boy  to  watch  the 
tobacco  box  and  see  that  it  never  runs  dry.  I  smoke  cigars 


''Hit  the  pipe." 

myself  sometimes,  but  I  never  hesitate  to  hit  the  pipe  with  a 
farmer  when  he  comes  in." 

Then  he  branched  out  a  little  broader.  "I  sustain  what 
I  call  a  literary  bureau,''  he  said.  "All  sorts  of  papers,  cir- 
culars and  other  kinds  of  reading  matter  come  to  me,  and 
instead  of  throwing  them  into  the  stove  I  put  them  on  a 
shelf  and  tell  a  farmer  to  fill  his  pocket  with  them.  I 
throw  my  newspapers  up  there,  too,  when  I  am  through 
with  them.  Now  pretty  soon,  when  the  evenings  get  a 
little  longer,  I  will  begin  to  run  my  literary  bureau  full  blast. 
I  have  thought  I  would  get  some  of  the  exchanges  from 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  121 

the  local  papers  to  give  out.  The  average  farmer  does  not 
spend  much  money  on  papers,  but  all  the  same  he  likes  to 
read  them.  I  have  had  the  wives  of  some  of  these  farmers 
call  in  front  of  my  place  and  ask  if  I  had  any  papers  to 
spare.  What  I  want  is  to  keep  my  customers,  thinking 
about  me  as  much  as  possible,  and  thinking  that  I  am  ready 
to  show  them  these  little  favors  out  of  my  good  feelings 
toward  them.  I  regard  all  this  as  cheap  advertising  and  at 
the  same  time  it  is  what  I  call  social  advertising.  By  as- 
suming top-lofty  airs  I  feel  confident  that  a  portion  of  my 
trade  would  leave  me.  If  I  was  catering  to  a  town  trade  it 
would  be  an  entirely  different  proposition.  Then  I  might 
try  to  work  some  other  racket." 

When  we  went  in  I  took  a  look  at  the  tobacco  sundries. 
The  pipes  cost  a  cent  and  a  half  each.  "I  suppose  that  $5 
a  year  will  run  my  tobacco  department,  and  I  am  not  sure 
but  it  does  me  $500  worth  of  good.  At  any  rate  I  wouldn't 
dispense  with  it  if  a  man  would  give  me  $50,"  was  the  yard 
man's  estimate  of  the  pipe  and  tobacco  scheme. 

"Got  any  more  snaps  hid  around  here?"  I  asked. 

"That  is  all,"  he  laughingly  said. 

On  my  way  to  the  hotel  I  reflected  how  many  baited 
hooks  there  are  thrown  out  for  poor,  weak  mortals  to  catch 
at ;  and  we  catch  at  them,  too.  If  it  is  not  a  corn  cob  pipe 
filled  with  cheap  tobacco  it  is  something  else.  We  are  all 
endowed  with  a  sort  of  catching  nature. 


MANY    NEW   YARDS,  t! 

"When  this  wave  of  prosperity  shall  have  passed  over 
there  will  be  more  lumber  yards  for  sale  than  you  can  shake 
a  stick  at,"  a  yard  man  remarked. 

Well,  I  am  not  so  sure  about  that.  During  those  times 
we  call  hard  as  much  money  is  made  in  lumber  as  in  other 
lines  of  business.  And  when  we  look  at  it  right  it  is  non- 
sense for  a  man  to  get  out  of  his  regular  business  because 


122  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

the  times  are  drawing  a  tight  rein.  I  heard  a  prominent 
yard  man  talking  along  this  line  a  while  ago  who  had  a 
good  opportunity  to  sell  his  yard.  "Why  should  I  sell?"  he 
asked.  "If  I  should  want  to  go  in  again  it  might  take  a 
long  time  to  find  a  place  that  would  suit  me.  A  desirable 
yard  is  not  to  be  picked  up  every  day.  And  if  I  should  want 
to  stay  out  I  could  not  safely  invest  my  money  so  that  it 
would  bring  me  more  than  4  percent,  and  it  takes  a  pile 
of  money  at  that  rate  of  interest  to  support  a  family.  I 
don't  know  where  money  can  be  safer  than  in  good  lumber, 
well  insured,  and  in  such  book  accounts  as  I  have." 

I  am  also  of  the  opinion  that  should  there  come  a  pinch 
in  the  times  and  good  yards  were  offered  for  sale  they  would 
be  picked  up  on  short  notice.  The  business  man  of  any 
experience  has  learned  that  these  so-called  hard  times  are 
the  pendulum  swinging  one  way,  and  that  soon  it  will  come 
back.  Do  you  think  hard  times  could  be  of  such  a  nature 
in  this  country  that  they  would  stay  for  any  great  length  of 
time  with  us  ?  Again,  there  are  men  in  large  numbers  who 
in  the  past  three  years  have  tried  to  buy  the  kind  of  lumber 
yards  they  wanted  and  who  failed  to  get  them.  Let  good 
yards  be  offered  for  sale  and  these  men  would  rush  in  as 
buyers,  willing  to  wait  a  little  while  for  the  balance  of  trade 
to  come  their  way. 

No  doubt,  should  the  times  squeeze  us  a  trifle,  there 
would  be  yards  to  sell.  There  are  yards  to  sell  now.  If  you 
want  them  you  can  be  steered  against  them.  With  yards 
in  nearly  every  little  burg  in  the  United  States,  it  would  be 
singular  if  somebody  did  not  want  to  sell  out.  But  they  are 
not  the  crack  yards.  That  grade  of  yard,  if  put  on  the 
market,  would  change  hands  before  you  could  say  Jack 
Robinson. 

This  large  number  of  yards  is  making  war.  It  seems 
to  me  I  have  never  known  of  so  much  scrapping  as  there 
is  in  the  retail  world  this  blessed  minute.  And  much  of 
it  comes  about  because  another  yard  has  gone  in.  Not  long 
ago  an  individual  dealer  located  in  a  town  in  which  there 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  123 

were  three  line  yards,  and  in  that  town  I  was  told  of  a  bill 
that  had  been  sold  for  $4.25  under  the  wholesale  list,  and 
to  induce  the  buyer  to  take  it  at  that  price  he  was  presented 
with  a  five-dollar  bill.  This  is  one  of  the  extreme  cases, 
but  there  are  scores  of  others  which  are  bad  enough.  By 
the  same  token  there  will  be  more  scrapping,  for  the  present 
number  of  yards  will  certainly  be  increased.  A  couple  of 
years  ago  I  had  a  prophetic  vision  that  there  would  be  this 
increase  in  yards,  and  those  yard  men  who  did  not  want  it 
to  come  true  really  taunted  me  to  my  very  beard!  To  be 
sure,  I  have  no  beard,  but  it  sounds  dramatic  and  like  war 
to  use  the  expression.  They  said  the  reverse  would  be  the 
case;  that  the  little  fellows  with  little  money  would  be 
crowded  out  and  thus  the  number  of  yards  be  reduced. 

Beloved,  things  do  not  come  our  way  for  the  simple  rea- 
son that  we  want  them  to.  If  they  did,  you  and  I  would 
have  so  many  dollars  that  we  could  throw  them  to  the  wind 
and  not  miss  them.  Instead  of  dictating  how  things  shall 
be  we  are  often  dictated  to.  Now,  there  is  my  acre  pasture 
out  back  of  the  barn,  with  my  one  old  black  cow  in  it.  One 
of  my  good  friends  has  3,000  acres  just  over  the  roll  of  the 
prairie  yonder,  with  steers  on  every  knoll  and  under  the 
shade  of  every  tree.  It  would  do  my  soul  good  to  be  such 
a  cattle  king,  but  I  haven't  had  the  speed  to  get  there.  And 
I  don't  know  as  I  am  going  to  be  held  responsible  because  in 
the  steer  line  I  am  unable  to  go  a  2:08  gait,  either.  No, 
things  will  not  come  our  way  simply  because  of  a  desire  in 
the  matter.  We  big  fellows  in  the  retail  world  may  want 
all  the  little  yards  to  close  up  shop  and  quit,  but  they  won't 
do  it  because  we  want  them  to.  They  think  they  have  a  right 
to  live.  What  if  this  big  cattle  owner  should  say  to  me 
he  was  going  to  do  all  the  cattle  business  in  this  section 
of  the  country  ?  I  would  tell  him  to  go  and  hang  himself ; 
that  I  and  my  old  black  cow  would  be  right  on  deck  yet 
awhile.  These  small  yard  men  will  make  some  such  reply 
to  us  big  moguls  when  we  tip  our  hats  to  them  and  politely 
ask  them  if  they  will  please  be  so  kind  as  to  quit. 


124  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

v/  I  know  of  no  other  dealer  in  merchandise  who  can 
raise  so  much  deuce  to  the  square  foot  as  can  the  retail 
lumberman.  When  he  gets  his  dander  up  he  demoralizes 
not  only  the  trade  of  his  own  town  but  that  of  every  town 
around  him.  In  speaking  of  the  disposition  of  so  many  yard 
men  to  do  this  an  old  dealer  remarked :  "Retail  lumbermen 
are  the  biggest  fools  on  the  face  of  the  earth !  In  this  town 
there  are  at  least  $75,000  in  stocks  and  yard  improvements, 
$50,000  on  books — $125,000  involved — yet  like  a  lot  of  dogs 
in  the  manger  we  are  fighting  one  another  off  and  nobody 
is  making  a  cent.  You  can't  find  another  such  a  blank  lot 
of  business  men.  At  that  sign  that  you  see  across  the  street 
down  yonder  there  is  a  new  grocery,  and  a  good-sized  con- 
cern it  is,  too.  But  because  they  have  started  in  there  you 
can't  go  to  the  other  groceries  and  buy  tea  and  butter  and 
flour  at  cost !  They  aren't  such  blank  fools  as  that !  My 
idea  is  that  when  there  is  a  yard  too  many,  buy  it  out  if  you 
can,  but  never  try  to  fight  it  out,  for  I  have  seen  it  demon- 
strated that  it  is  possible  for  one  man  to  fight  as  well  as 
another." 

The  huge  joke  of  all  this  scrapping  business  is  that 
every  man  engaged  in  it  knows  the  remedy.  It  is  no  far- 
ther away  from  him  than  the  offices  of  his  neighbors.  But 
when  we  get  bull-headed  from  pride  and  selfishness,  the 
good  Lord  help  us ! 


THE  WHOLESALE  DEALER'S  COMPLAINT. 

:r.'»;A     •   *L«,t    f  ;JjU:>l    -Ui:    ni.  ^-A;;-:1;/?     %hi     iH    .   ..T.'JjjRff!  :>{\l 

As  we  were  speeding  along  on  the  boulevard  in  a  car- 
riage with  a  monogram  on  the  door,  the  wholesale  man 
had  something  to  say  about  the  yard  man  who  pays  his  bills 
in  a  provoking  manner. 

The  world  is  not  full  of  people  who  have  been  trained 
to  exact  business  methods ;  when  we  have  been  so  trained, 
however,  irregular  methods  are  very  objectionable.  Now 
there  is  my,  best  girl.  She  could  keep  house  well  enough 
for  the  King  of  England;  still,  the  king  would  have  to 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  125 

mind  his  eye,  for  if  he  should  come  into  the  parlor  with 
muddy  feet  she  would  shoo  him  out  with  a  broom.  You 
see  she  has  an  idea  of  the  eternal  fitness  of  things.  It  is 
the  same  with  this  wholesale  man  of  whom  I  am  speaking. 
By  training,  and  possibly  by  nature,  he  is  punctual,  pays  a 
debt  on  the  tick  of  a  watch  when  it  is  due;  and  it  goes 
against  the  grain  that  others  are  not  thus  prompt. 

One  of  the  charges  made  was  that  the  yard  men  when 
paying  bills  too  often  remit  personal  checks.  "In  a  single 
case  it  does  not  amount  to  enough  worth  talking  about, 
but  take  say  twenty  such  checks  a  day,  which  cost  from  20 
to  40  cents  each  to  collect,  and  it  counts  up,"  he  said.  The 
position  was  taken  that  it  costs  the  yard  man  only  a  very 
small  amount  to  buy  a  draft,  often  nothing  at  the  bank 
where  he  does  his  business,  and  that  it  is  by  draft  he 
should  pay. 

In  my  opinion  the  wholesale  man  is  right.  I  do  not 
believe  it  is  good  business  form  sending  personal  checks  all 
over  creation.  If  I  owe  you  $i — and  it  holds  true  if  I  owe 
you  $1,000 — it  seems  to  me  that  you  are  entitled  to  that 
amount,  and  when  I  pay  you  with  a  check  that  will  cost 
you  exchange  to  collect  I  am  not  doing  my  whole  duty.  I 
know  it  is  done  a  good  deal,  but  that  has  only  to  do  with 
the  custom — it  does  not  affect  the  principle  in  the  least. 

Another  complaint  was  that  the  time  of  payment  which 
entitles  the  yard  man  to  the  discount  is  extended,  and  the 
discount  deducted  just  the  same.  Now  we  all  know  there 
is  no  business  in  that.  I  know  merchants  who  would  pay 
the  full  bill  instead  of  discounting  it  if  the  time  ran  twenty- 
four  hours  over  the  ten  or  thirty  days,  as  the  case  might 
be.  That  is  fulfilling  the  spirit  of  the  contract.  You  say  to 
me,  "I  will  sell  you  these  goods,  cash  sixty  days,  2  percent 
off  in  thirty  days."  The  thirty  days  pass  and  I  do  not  re- 
mit. Maybe  I  want  to  use  the  money  for  five  or  ten  days, 
and  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  I  deduct  the  discount  and 
forward  the  balance.  Don't  you  see  my  position  is  not 
entirely  plumb?  I  have  violated  the  contract.  And  many  a 


126  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

man  in  the  various  lines  does  this,  thinking  the  matter  is 
so  small  that  the  wholesale  dealer  will  say  nothing  about  it ; 
but  the  wholesale  dealer  will  keep  up  a-thinking,  all  the 
same.  The  point  is  here:  We  should  do  as  we  agree,  no 
matter  whether  a  few  cents,  or  a  million  of  them,  are  in- 
volved. 

The  wholesalers  will  get  it  in  for  us  often  enough ; 
there  are  those  who  will  take  advantage  of  us  in  filling  or- 
ders, but  we  must  be  square  with  them.  And  there  is  an- 
other point :  Force  them  to  be  square  with  us.  Live  up  to 
our  contract,  and  make  them  live  up  to  theirs.  I  am  the 
friend  of  the  righteous  kicker.  Sometimes  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  get  our  rights  without  kicking.  But  let  us  bear  in 
mind  that  the  wholesale  man  is  also  justified  in  kicking 
when  his  rights  are  not  respected. 


TRICKS  OF  WHOLESALE  MEN. 

Do  you  know  what  right  a  wholesale  dealer  has  to  fill 
an  order  contrary  to  the  letter  of  it?  It  would  require  a 
book  like  this  in  which  to  record  all  the  cases  of  this  kind 
which  have  been  brought  to  my  notice.  It  appeals  to  me 
that  these  wholesale  men  go  or»  the  principle  that  the  yard 
men  do  not  know  what  they  want.  It  is  similar  to  my  or- 
dering, say,  a  pair  of  pants  from  Chicago.  I  would  meas- 
ure the  length  of  my  legs,  the  big  circumference  of  my 
waist,  send  the  figures  along  and  tell  the  tailor  that  I 
wanted  a  pair  of  all  wool  pants  of  those  particular  dimen- 
sions. Back  they  come — three-quarters  cotton,  the  legs  four 
inches  too  long  and  the  waist  so  small  that  I  have  to  lace 
them  up  in  front  with  shoe  strings.  The  tailor  virtually 
says,  "Old  man,  you  don't  know  what  you  want ;  so  I  send 
these  along  and  I  believe  you  will  be  pleased  with  them !" 

I  would  be  tickled,  wouldn't  I?  I  would  take  particular 
pains  to  go  around  among  my  friends  and  say  to  them  that 
this  Chicago  tailor  was  the  best  fellow  who  ever  made  pants 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  127 

for  me,  and  they  would  do  well  to  order  from  him,  wouldn't 
I?  Not  on  your  life,  as  they  say  in  cultured  circles.  I 
would  have  a  knife  up  my  sleeve  for  that  Chicago  tailor. 
Don't  you  see  that  this  is  only  an  exaggerated  statement  of 
what  is  occurring  in  the  lumber  world  every  day? 

Yesterday  I  saw  a  yard  man  who  ordered  a  car  of  yel- 
low pine,  and  it  came  stuffed  to  the  tune  of  2,000  feet. 
Poor  fellow,  of  course  he  didn't  know  how  much  yellow 
pine  he  wanted.  It  was  for  the  wholesale  man  to  know 
that !  He  wrote  the  wholesale  house  and  got  a  letter  in  re- 
turn that  made  him  as  mad  as  a  wet  hen.  Today  I  saw 
another  yard  man  whose  yellow  pine  order  was  stuffed 
3,000  feet.  In  addition  he  was  given  grooved  back  flooring 
when  flat  back  was  ordered.  "Flat  back  is  worth  $i  more 
to  me,"  he  said.  The  car  stood  on  track,  and  very  likely 
the  men  who  sold  the  lumber  had  to  take  it  away.  Soon 
after  the  orders  for  these  cars  were  given  yellow  pine  lum- 
ber declined. in  price  $2  or  $3.  "/"Pretty  kettle  of  fish,  wasn't 
it.  Where  "we re  the  next  orders  of  these  yard  men  placed? 

In  contradistinction  to  this  way  of  doing  business  I  am 
going  to  tell  one  on  a  big  Minneapolis  company.  Last  week  I 
saw  a  yard  man  who  does  contracting.  I  asked  him  where  he 
bought  his  stock  and  he  was  gentleman  enough  to  tell  me. 
He  said  he  bought  it  almost  exclusively  of  this  Minneapolis 
company.  Last  year  he  bought  of  the  concern  more  than 
100  cars.  I  am  constantly  putting  foolish  questions,  and  I 
asked  this  yard  man  why  it  was  thus.  "It  is  because  I  get 
what  I  want  there,"  said  he.  "Gipson  sees  that  I  get  it." 

Possibly  you  know  these  people.  I  suppose  in  volume 
of  business  they  are  the  leading  lumbermen  of  the  world 
today.  Stoop  shouldered,  gray  haired  old  men,  who  have 
worked  their  way  up.  So  you  might  picture  them,  but  you 
would  be  wrong.  Young  men,  both  of  them.  And  how 
have  these  young  men  managed  to  place  their  feet  on  the 
topmost  rung  of  the  ladder?  Capital?  No!  Capital  can't 
do  it,  else  there  are  scores  of  lumber  concerns  with  their 
millions  and  millions  who  would  have  been  there.  These 


128 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


young  men  please  their  customers ;  that  is  the  secret  of  it. 
Those  firms  which  are  stuffing  orders  and  who,  by  their  dis- 
tasteful business  methods,  are  alienating  the  yard  men  would 
better  put  this  recipe  for  success  in  their  pipes  and  smoke  it. 


FORGETFULNESS  IN  CHARGING. 

To  paraphrase :  To  charge  or  not  to  charge,  that  is 
the  question.  Whether  it  is  better  to  forget  to  charge  and 
thus  be  out  of  our  goods  as  clean  as  though  a  thief  had 
taken  them,  or  to  charge  and  thus  pursue  a  respected  husi- 


"We   were   promenading  the   platform." 

ness  career  by  keeping  out  of  the  sheriff's  hands — this  is  a 
question  which  should  occupy  our  minds. 

The  yard  man  who  is  growing  gray  in  the  service,  and 
who  has  given  particular  attention  to  this  question,  regards 
it  as  folly  for  a  lumberman,  unless  he  has  a  thorough  system, 
to  assert  that  he  omits  putting  nothing  on  his  books.  He 
instanced  several  cases  when  whole  wagon  loads  of  lumber 
went  out  scot-free. 

He  laughed  at  those  people  who  believe  they  have  "per- 
fect" memories.  He  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  memory  is 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  129 

perfect  when  it  works,  but  that,  like  all  else  that  is  of  the 
earth,  it  is  liable  to  lapse  and  slip  cogs.  At  one  time  he 
bought  his  meat  of  a  butcher  who  did  a  credit  business  and, 
prompted  by  his  observation  he  said  to  this  butcher  that  he 
believed  a  large  part  of  his  profits  were  lost  by  not  charging 
meat  that  went  out.  The  butcher  turned  up  his  big,  fat 
nose  at  this.  He  would  wait  on  a  string  of  customers,  and 
when  there  wras  a  lull  in  trade  he  would  go  to  the  book  and 
charge  the  items.  He  was  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  he 
missed  nothing,  reiving  as  he  did  on  that  perfect  memory 
of  his.  This  yard  man  does  not  assume  to  guess  or  infer 
that  as  the  credit  business  is  ordinarily  run  the  charging  of 
many  goods  sold  is  neglected.  He  says  he  knows  there  is 
this  neglect.  So  he  kept  tab  on  the  butcher  so  far  as  his 
own  trade  with  him  was  concerned,  and  the  first  week  he 
got  meat  twice  no  record  of  which  could  be  found  on  the 
butcher's  books.  ''That  would  have  knocked  all  the  profit 
there  was  to  the  butcher  in  my  trade  for  a  week,"  said  the 
yard  man. 

This  man  explained  his  method  of  billing  orders.  When 
selling  a  bill  of  lumber  he  makes  a  memorandum  of  every 
item  wanted  before  a  stick  is  loaded.  If  a  customer  says 
he  wants  two  boards  to  patch  up  a  hole  in  the  shed  he  makes 
a  memorandum  of  those  two  boards,  and  then  asks  what 
else  is  wanted.  From  this  memorandum  the  items  are 
checked  as  they  are  loaded — strictly  so.  If  shingles  and 
lime  are  on  the  memorandum  they  are  not  checked  after  the 
shingles  and  lime  are  on  the  wagon,  but  as  soon  as  the 
shingles  are  thrown  on  that  item  is  checked,  and  the  same  as 
to  the  lime.  Then  if  it  is  a  cash  deal  he  simply  scribbles 
"cash"  on  the  slip ;  if  it  is  to  be  charged  it  is  so  indicated, 
and  the  record  is  ready  for  the  bookkeeper. 

'This  method  has  an  additional  advantage,"  said  the  yard 
man  when  we  were  promenading  the  platform,  waiting  for 
the  train  that  would  rid  the  town  of  me.  "When  all  the 
items  are  before  you  on  a  slip  like  that  you  can  load  to 
better  advantage.  Instead  of  driving  helter-skelter  through 


130  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

the  yard,  back  and  forth  through  the  alleys,  picking  up  an 
item  here  and  there  as  the  buyer  thinks  he  may  want  it,  you 
know  just  where  to  drive  to  get  the  items,  one  after  the 
other.  For  instance,  a  man  wants  a  few  pieces  of  dimen- 
sion and  we  throw  it  on.  Then  he  wants  a  little  siding  and 
we  drive  around  in  the  last  alley  and  put  that  on.  Then  it 
occurs  to  the  buyer  that  he  wants  some  No.  4  boards,  so 
back  we  come  next  to  the  dimension  pile  and  load  them. 
Even  in  loading  it  saves  time,  and  time  does  not  lack  much 
of  being  money." 

Then  when  I  had  gone  aboard  and  found  a  seat  in  the 
crowded  car  the  man  with  the  goatee  and  heavy  eyebrows 
who  sat  by  my  side  went  to  talking  politics.  I  try  to  be 
courteous,  but  I  almost  forget  my  bringing  up  when  some 
slobmagullion  of  a  politician  goes  to  bumping  arguments 
into  me  which  have  been  going  the  rounds  of  the  newspapers 
for  a  year,  and  doing  it  in  a  way  that  he  would  have  a  lis- 
tener believe  these  arguments  are  original  with  him.  It  is 
then  I  want  to  stretch  myself  out  and  rest. 


PERFECT  BALANCES. 

I  know  from  experience  that  I  hope  never  to  be  obliged 
to  repeat  in  this  world,  or  the  world  to  come,  that  bookkeep- 
ing is  the  measliest  occupation  that  can  be  followed,  at  least 
by  a  mortal  of  my  temperament  and  taste.  I  pity  the  book- 
keeper wherever  I  see  him.  There  is  that  dogged,  over  and 
over  again,  2  and  2  are  4  business  from  morning  till  night, 
day  in  and  day  out.  Of  the  two  I  would  prefer  digging 
ditches,  for  if  doing  that  I  could  stick  my  spade  in  where  I 
had  a  mind  to,  but  when  keeping  books  you  are  in  the  never 
ending  rut  from  start  to  finish.  Down  in  Texas  I  saw  one  of 
the  neatest  looking  girls  you  ever  saw  at  the  books  in  a 
prosperous  retail  man's  office,  and  if  in  the  morning  I  had 
read  she  had  eloped  I- would  have  called  her  a  bully  old  gal! 

A  friend  of  mine  who  has  a  ledger  in  the  largest  wholesale 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  131 

dry  goods  house  in  Chicago  looked  all  night  for  10  cents. 
Now,  bookkeeping  is  an  exact  art — or  science,  if  you  have  a 
mind  to  call  it  such — but  there  should  be  a  grain  of  common 
sense  yoked  up  with  everything.  1  saw  a  nice  appearing 
young  fellow  pegging  away  on  the  books  in  a  retail  lumber 
office— a  fellow  who  on  the  surface  was  gentlemanly,  intelli- 
gent and  industrious.  The  boss  was  showing  a  man  lumber 
in  the  yard,  so  this  young  man  and  myself  did  some  chatting 
on  our  own  account.  We  talked  about  the  different  systems 
of  bookkeeping  and  incidentally  he  remarked  that  he  was 
having  some  trouble  with  his  trial  balance.  ''The  fact  is/' 
he  said,  "the  average  country  business  office  is  a  hard  place 
to  work  provided  exact  results  are  expected  on  the  books. 
Mr.  So-and-so  here  is  liable  at  any  time  to  take  money  from 
the  drawer  without  making  any  minute  of  it,  and  then  of 
course  my  work  is  unhinged.  If  I  could  handle  all  the 
money  myself  it  would  be  different  in  this  respect." 

"Does  he  expect  perfect  balances?"  I  chipped  in. 

"He  likes  them  pretty  well,"  was  the  reply. 


''Looked  all  night  for   10  cents." 

Under  such  conditions  no  ambitious  bookkeeper  could  do 
the  kind  of  work  to  suit  him.  The  final  result  in  bookkeep- 
ing is  built  up;  it  comes  from  a  manipulation  of  many  fac- 


132  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

tors,  and  if  one  of  those  factors  is  at  fault  of  course  the  re- 
sult is  also  at  fault.  One  careless  man  handling  the  cash 
will  knock  out  the  best  bookkeeper  who  ever  lived.  I  was 
in  this  office  at  closing  up  time  and  I  noticed  the  bookkeeper 
was  particular  to  ask  both  the  boss  and  his  son  if  they  were 
sure  they  had  put  on  the  ticket  all  the  money  they  had  taken 
from  the  drawer.  Both  said  they  had.  "Who  paid  for  the 
load  of  hay  that  was  taken  to  your  house?"  the  bookkeeper 
asked. 

"That  is  so;  I  didn't  put  that  on  the  ticket,"  said  the 
yard  man. 

If  I  remember  rightly  the  amount  was  something  over  $6. 
If  the  yard  man  had  not  been  questioned  he  would  have  gone 
home  and  the  bookkeeper  might  have  put  in  extra  time  and 
worry  in  an  endeavor  to  find  out  what  had  become  of  the 
money. 

Said  a  yard  man  who  has  charge  of  his  own  books :  "My 
books  are  liable  to  be  out  of  balance  all  the  time,  for  when 
settling  with  customers  we  often  throw  off  a  few  cents.  If  a 
yard  man  insisted  on  his  customers  paying  to  a  cent  they 
would  think  he  is  small.  That  little  bill  that  was  just  paid 
called  for  $3.55.  The  man  threw  out  $3.50,  as  much  as  to 
say  that  ought  to  pay  it,  and  I  told  him  'all  right.'  That  may 
happen  several  times  a  day.  These  knock  offs  of  odd  cents 
amount  to  dollars  every  month." 

It  seems  to  me  that  if  there  is  any  nonsense  under  the 
sun  it  is  to  keep  a  well-meaning  man  working  day  and 
night  on  a  set  of  books  to  find  an  amount  so  insignificant 
that  it  would  cut  no  figure  one  way  or  the  other — an  amount 
that  the  average  man  would  pay  out  for  cigars  or  cocktails 
and  never  give  it  a  second  thought.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  being  merciful  to  our  bookkeepers. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  133 

COGS  WHICH  DO  NOT  MESH. 

There  is  not  a  week  but  my  attention  is  called  to  some 
contention  between  the  retail  and  wholesale  dealers  which, 
in  my  opinion,  ought  not  to  exist.  I  do  wish  there  were  no 
differences  which  would  come  between  them.  Trade  fric- 
tion is  to  be  regretted.  It  is  wasted  power.  It  makes  hard 
feelings  and  estranges  those  who  would  otherwise  be  at 
least  business  and  possibly  personal  friends. 

In  a  yard  I  recently  saw  a  pile  of  posts  and  asked  the 
yard  man  what  he  could  do  with  posts  of  that  size  in  a 
small  town?  I  should  say  they  would  average  about  two 
inches.  The  reply  was  that  he  couldn't  do  much  of  any- 
thing with  them;  that  if  he  got  the  chance  he  would  be 
willing  to  sell  them  very  cheap.  Posts  of  this  size  will  sell 
to  some  extent  in  a  large  town  for  holding  up  vines,  building 
chicken  pens  and  like  purposes,  but  the  farmer  has  no  use 
for  them.  The  farmer  wants  something  big  for  his  money. 
At  times  he  will  take  a  three-inch  post,  but  he  prefers  a  four- 
inch.  The  yard  man  told  me  that  from  a  carload  of  alleged 
three-inch  posts  he  assorted  nearly  500  of  these  small  ones. 
He  objected  to  them,  told  the  wholesale  men  of  whom  they 
were  purchased  how  they  had  come  out,  and  if  they  were 
not  satisfied  with  his  say-so  to  send  on  a  man  and  inspect 
them.  Hearing  nothing  satisfactory  he  made  what  he 
thought  was  a  proper  reduction  in  the  bill  and  forwarded 
the  draft.  "They  did  not  even  acknowledge  the  receipt  of 
the  draft,"  said  he. 

The  post  men  were  mad — there  can  be  little  question  as  to 
that.  Possibly  they  were  as  mad  as  hops,  but  they  should 
not  have  cut  the  matter  off  so  abruptly,  it  seems  to  me. 
They  showed  poor  taste  in  doing  that.  These  wholesale 
men  may  claim  they  were  not  aware  the  car  was  stuffed  with 
so  many  small  posts,  and  possibly  they  were  not.  The  man 
who  loaded  them  may  have  been  the  villain.  I  have  heard 
this  excuse  offered  time  and  time  again — that  there  was 
some  mistake  in  loading.  These  mistakes  do  occur,  but 


134  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

permit  me  to  say  that  any  employee  in  a  wholesale  yard 
who  day  after  day  stuffs  cars  does  so  with  the  knowledge 
of  his  employer.  Put  a  pin  in  that.  If  a  yard  manager  is 
instructed  to  send  out  straight  goods  he  is  going  to  do  it, 
and  if  he  is  instructed  that  when  he  sees  an  opportunity  he 
can  manipulate  grades  he  is  going  to  do  that.  I  have  never 
known  of  an  employee  in  a  yard  who  would  insist,  against 
the  wishes  of  the  men  who  paid  him  his  wages,  in  loading 
poorer  lumber  than  the  bill  called  for.  Did  you?  I  also 
want  to  ask  you  wholesale  men,  did  you  ? 

This  filling  of  orders  is  a  great  point.  I  met  a  commis- 
sion man  who  had  a  string  of  orders  on  his  book,  and  he 
said  he  was  going  up  north  the  next  day  to  see  about  loading 
the  lumber.  "I  attend  to  that  part  of  the  business  myself," 
said  he ;  and  I  thought  he  displayed  a  wise  side  of  his  na- 
ture. To  return  to  cedar  posts :  If  custom  permits  the  run- 
ning into  a  car  of  posts  any  certain  percentage  of  smaller 
posts  than  were  bought  I  wish  the  wholesale  post  men 
would  make  it  known,  for  certainly  anything  of  that  kind 
is  not  understood  by  the  retail  yard  men.  I  do  not  know 
how  many  of  them  I  have  heard  kicking  about  the  small 
posts  they  receive. 

I  like  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  these  things,  so  for  my 
own  satisfaction  I  looked  up  the  standing  of  the  yard  man 
who  had  selected  the  small  posts  from  the  carload,  and 
there  is  not  a  breath  against  him.  He  is  rated  as  prompt 
pay  and  not  as  one  of  those  few  dealers  who  are  in  the  habit 
of  complaining  about  the  quality  of  the  stock  he  receives,  or 
making  reductions. 

Not  long  ago  a  yard  man  told  me  he  had  received  a  car 
of  red  cedar  shingles  that  he  would  not  accept.  We  went 
through  a  bunch  of  them,  and  if  ever  there  was  an  ungodly 
shingle  that  was  it — narrow  widths,  cracks,  ragged  butts, 
and  nearly  every  other  defect  that  a  shingle  was  ever  known 
to  have. 

"I  couldn't  try  to  sell  them  to  a  customer/'  said  the  yard 
man. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  135 

"Would  you  accept  such  a  shingle  as  that  ?"  he  asked  me 
after  we  had  looked  them  over. 

"Not  until  the  lower  regions  froze  over,"  I  told  him. 

Yet  in  the  face  of  these  incidents,  and  dozens  of  similar 
ones  which  could  be  cited,  there  are  wholesale  men  who 
delight  to  tell  what  kickers  the  yard  men  are.  I  am  pre- 
pared to  tell  my  wholesale  friends  how  they  can  stop  much 
of  this  kicking — deliver  the  grade  of  goods  they  sell.  The 
other  kickers  kick  because  they  think  they  can  make  some- 
thing by  it.  If  I  could  join  hands  with  the  wholesale  men 
and  do  these  fellows  up  until  they  would  squeal  for  mercy 
I  would  do  it. 

I  wish  these  matters  of  dispute  were  out  of  the  way.  It 
makes  us  feel  so  comfortable  when  we  can  go  through  life  as 
though  the  track  were  oiled  for  the  occasion,  and  not  strike 
boulders,  and  perhaps  get  junted  into  the  ditch.  I  should 
like  to  see  all  retail  and  wholesale  men  friends.  Somewhere 
out  west  there  is  a  tent  pitched,  and  under  it  tonight  on  a 
hunting  trip  will  sleep  a  yard  man  and  a  wholesale  dealer. 
I  heard  them  when  they  put  up  the  job.  For  years  the 
yard  man  has  bought  lumber  of  the  fellow  who  is  now  his 
tentmate.  No  doubt  they  have  treated  each  other  fair  and 
square,  else  they  would  not  be  having  a  glorious  outing  to- 
gether. 

After  all,  that  is  the  way  to  live.  We  cannot  all  go 
tenting  together,  but  if  the  love  of  justice  fills  a  corner  of 
cur  hearts  we  will  so  conduct  ourselves  that  those  with 
whom  we  come  in  contact  will  wish  they  could  tent  with  us, 
and  that  is  the  next  thing  to  doing  it.  I  wish  more  of  us 
would  nail  up  the  golden  rule  in  our  offices,  and  having 
nailed  it  up  march  to  the  tune  of  it.  It  is  a  mighty  good 
tune  to  march  to. 


136  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

DIFFERENT  QUALIFICATIONS  OF  PARTNERS. 

Have  you  ever  tried  to  find  the  man  who  was  rounded 
out  at  every  point?  If  you  made  the  effort  you  failed.  All 
of  us  have  our  angles  and  shortcomings. 

We  lumbermen  present  all  sorts  of  appearances.  Not 
one  of  us  is  perfect  in  our  line.  When  we  find  one  man 
who  is  a  good  buyer,  good  salesman,  good  collector,  good 
stockkeeper,  all  the  rest  are  deficient  in  one  or  more  of 
these  directions.  A  man  who  had  all  sorts  of  fine  theories 
about  collecting  showed  an  absolute  misunderstanding  of 
the  market  last  fall  and  winter,  and  held  off  buying  expect- 
ing that  prices  would  break.  The  yard  of  one  of  the  best 
salesmen  I  know  looks  as  though  the  tail  of  a  cyclone  had 
switched  it.  I  know  a  yard  man  whose  bump  of  order  is 
evidently  the  only  bump  there  is  on  his  head. 

Wise  men  understand  this  condition  of  affairs.  A  part- 
ner in  a  Kansas  firm  remarked,  "I  thought  it  would  be  best 
to  join  forces.  I  do  call  myself  a  pretty  good  buyer,  but 
John  can  sell  lumber  all  around  me.  He  knows  everybody 
in  this  whole  country."  I  warmed  to  him.  I  like  the  man 
who  will  own  right  up  frankly  that  he  doesn't  know  it  all. 

In  this  partnership  business  the  bringing  together  of 
two  distinct  qualifications  is  desirable.  Two  good  office 
men,  or  two  good  stockmen,  do  not  fill  the  bill.  I  visited  a 
concern  that  is  well  known  in  the  section  of  the  country  in 
which  it  operates.  By  the  mercantile  agencies  it  is  rated 
high,  financially  and  otherwise.  A  man  was  working  in 
the  shed  who  was  pointed  out  as  one  of  the  partners.  I 
opened  on  the  prospect  of  the  wholesale  lumber  market,  but 
evidently  he  was  not  bothered  by  the  prospect.  He  had  his 
coat  and  vest  off,  wore  a  shirt  that  cost  maybe  48  cents,  and 
his  hands  were  like  those  of  a  man  who  works  for  a  living. 
He  was  helping  to  load  a  wagon,  and  took  right  hold  like 
a  hired  man.  He  knew  all  about  the  stock  in  the  shed,  and 
had  opinions  of  his  own  as  to  the  way  stock  should  be 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  137 

handled.  He  was  up  to  his  business  from  the  yard  end 
of  it. 

The  other  partner  talked  market  prospects  until  you 
couldn't  rest.  He  knew  all  about  the  low  water  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  drouth  out  in  the  Dakotas.  He  had  his 
ideas  of  bookkeeping  and  collecting.  With  building  the 
shed  and  stocking  it,  he  said  he  had  nothing  to  do.  He  let 
his  partner's  end  of  the  business  alone,  and  his  partner  lets 
his  alone.  That,  you  see,  makes  a  good  team.  Not  long 
ago  I  was  in  an  office  and  the  two  partners  talked  more 
than  ten  minutes  over  the  buying  of  less  than  a  half  dozen 
doors. .  One  would  give  his  opinion  and  then  the  other 
would  give  his.  They  both  acted  as  though  they  were 
afraid. 

The  impression  meant  to  be  conveyed  in  this  little  piece 
is  that  no  retail  lumberman  need  feel  like  cutting  his  throat 
if  he  is  not  a  man  of  all  around  qualifications.  We  are  apt 
to  expect  too  much  of  a  man  who  is  in  business  for  himself, 
and  doing  the  most  of  the  work  himself.  If  you  were  in 
a  great  city  and  wanted  a  position  that  would  bring  you  a 
big  salary,  if  you  posed  as  an  all  around  man  you  would  get 
nothing  better  to  do  than  to  tumble  around  boxes  and 
barrels.  If  you  should  go  into  an  office  and  declare  you 
were  an  expert  salesman,  an  expert  buyer,  an  expert  ac- 
countant, an  expert  stockman,  they  would  ask  the  porter  to 
show  the  crazy  man  out !  You  would  fail  to  find  a  big 
business  man  who  would  think  for  a  minute  that  one  mortal 
could  be  all  that. 

Therefore,  if  we  are  deficient  in  one  direction,  let  us 
thank  the  Lord  that  we  are  not  deficient  in  all,  and  keep 
right  on  sawing  wood. 


138  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

FARMER  YARDS. 

The  farmer  yard  is  an  eyesore  to  the  other  dealers  who 
do  business  in  its  territory.  They  object  to  the  methods 
pursued.  It  would  be  as  reasonable  to  expect  a  healthy 
condition  of  trade  without  profit  as  it  would  to  sustain  a 
healthy  body  without  food.  In  trade,  profit  is  the  food.  In 
other  regards  we  must  not  of  course  be  so  un-American  as 
to  forget  that  a  combination  of  farmers  has  the  same  right 
to  sell  lumber  that  we  would  have  to  go  to  farming.  If  we 
do  not  look  out  we  become  small  in  these  things.  Man 
should  keep  growing  and  growing  until  he  is  a  very 
behemoth.  But  these  yard  men  think  they  have  a  right  to 
object  to  methods  which  demoralize  trade  for  a  dozen  towns 
around. 

In  common  with  the  rest  of  us,  the  farmer  is  a  queer 
duck.  In  order  that  the  cost  of  goods  may  be  reduced  to 
the  consumer  his  cry  is  down  with  the  middle  man !  Yet 
we  must  say  that  when  he  becomes  the  middle  man  him- 
self he  stands  by  the  principle  he  has  advocated,  and  sells 
goods  at  a  small,  or  no,  profit.  If  consistency  is  a  jewel  he 
is  one  in  this  connection.  I  have  known  several  farmers 
who  would  get  to  thinking  that  they  were  born  to  be 
merchants,  sell  their  farms,  move  into  town  to  handle  gro- 
ceries, dry  goods,  clothing,'  and  in  a  few  years,  having  paid 
dear  for  their  change,  would  go  out  of  town  again  and 
resume  their  old  calling.  It  is  bosh  for  any  man  to  entertain 
an  idea  that  he  can  do  well  a  thing  which  he  has  not 
learned  to  do. 

Herein  lies  the  farmer's  inconsistency;  he  would  rejoice 
to  get  $3  a  bushel  for  his  wheat  or  corn — seeing  nothing 
in  that  price  touching  extortion — but  when  he  settles  down 
to  sell  lumber  he  professes  to  think  he  is  a  highwayman  if 
he  makes  a  profit  to  exceed  50  cents  a  thousand. 

I  know  of  only  one  farmer  yard  that  is  well  managed. 
There  may  be  others,  but  I  have  never  run  across  them. 
And  really  what  could  a  competent  manager  do  if  he  was 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  139 

commanded  by  a  hundred  inexperienced  stockholders? 
These  yards  as  a  rule  are  not  long  lived.  Dissension  creeps 
in  and,  as  the  poet  says,  like  a  canker  it  gnaws  at  the  core. 
These  yards  are  a  thorn  in  the  side,  but  only  for  a  little 
while. 

In  southern  Iowa  there  was  a  farmer  who  envied  the 
yard  men  the  snap  they  are  having.  He  could  sell  lumber 
as  well  as  any  of  them,  he  thought,  and  he  proposed  to  do  it 


"Professes  to  think  he  is  a  highwayman." 

in  style,  so  he  built  a  large  shed,  underpinned  it  with  stone 
and  then  his  troubles  began.  With  imperfect  ventilation 
the  lumber  became  damaged.  Then  a  gentle  prairie  breeze 
came  that  way  and  the  shed  was  so  flimsily  built  that  the 
breeze  played  with  it  as  with  a  toy,  and  when  it  had  gone  on 
to  raise  Cain  elsewhere  it  cost  nearly  as  much  to  make  the 
shed  sound  again  as  it  did  originally  to  build  it.  This  man, 
however,  started  in  with  the  intention  of  being  a  genuine 
lumberman,  and  I  trust  that  his  troubles  are  ended.  But 
he  has  learned  that  he  couldn't  jump  from  a  stock  pasture 
into  a  lumber  yard  and  succeed  in  a  day. 


140  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

STANDING  IN  WITH  CONTRACTORS. 

More  and  more  I  see  how  important  it  is  that  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  the  lumber  industry  should  work  together 
like  cog  wheels.  For  years  I  have  been  trying  to  induce 
the  retail  and  wholesale  dealers  to  lie  down  in  the  same  pas- 
ture like  so  many  lambs,  and  I  would  also  that  the  yard  men 
and  contractors  be  on  good  terms.  Of  course,  we  all  know 
that  the  average  contractor  is  not  worth  the  powder  to  blow 
him  over  the  fence.  Why  so  many  irresponsible  men  should 
be  building  houses  is  past  my  comprehension.  There  are 
yard  men  by  the  hundreds  who  want  nothing  to  do  with  a 
contractor,  though  at  the  same  time  it  is  not  an  easy  job  to 
dispense  with  him.  When  speaking  in  this  way  do  not 
understand  me  as  including  all  contractors.  There  is  here 
and  there  one  who  is  all  right.  To  get  along  with  him  is 
easy.  But  how  about  the  others  ?  They  are  tough,  but 
can't  you  stand  in  with  some  of  them  to  advantage? 

The  average  contractor  doesn't  care  how  many  rows  he 
has  with  a  yard  man.  As  a  rule  he  has  nothing  to  lose,  and 
very  often  he  can  kick  up  a  good  sized  dust  storm.  I 
know  a  yard  man  who  got  at  outs  with  a  contractor,  and 
then  this  contractor  went  to  shipping  in  from  a  Chicago 
poacher.  In  addition,  he  told  every  prospective  builder  he 
could  get  to  listen  to  him  how  much  money  could  be  saved 
in  buying  away  from  home,  and  to  prove  it  he  would  pull 
out  a  list  and  read  off  the  prices.  He  had  it  in  for  the 
yard  man  and  injured  his  trade  every  way  he  possibly  could. 

I  knew  another  contractor  who  had  a  quarrel  with  a 
yard  man  and  said  he  would  start  a  yard  of  his  own.  The 
yard  man  thought  it  was  idle  talk.  The  contractor  had  no 
money,  but  I  should  like  to  see  a  determined  man  \vho 
could  not  put  in  a  stock  of  lumber  on  that  account.  At  first 
the  stock  was  small.  As  a  yard  his  would  not  have  been 
recognized  by  any  retail  association.  But  it  grew.  No 
man  but  has  his  friends.  The  ghost  of  Benedict  Arnold 
could  sell  lumber  in  any  community  if  it  could  put  in  a  yard. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  141 

We  sometimes  think  we  are  the  favorite  in  our  community, 
and  all  such  nonsense,  but  we  would  better  club  the  idea 
out  of  our  heads.  The  buying  community  doesn't  care  the 
snap  of  its  ringer  who  gets  its  money  if  only  good  value  is 
returned  for  it.  As  component  parts  of  the  community  you 
and  I  size  up  about  with  the  same  number  of  other  compo- 
nent parts.  Today  this  man  who  put  in  a  carload  of  lumber 
through  spite  is  a  legitimate  dealer,  and  has  as  much  as 
500,000  feet  of  lumber  in  pile.  I  do  not  think  he  does  any 
contracting  now.  He  has  been  graduated  from  the  building 
business  and  is  evidently  making  money. 

A  yard  man  was  recently  telling  me  how  much  flint 
plaster  he  sells.  Not  long  ago  a  contracting  mason  did  a 
big  share  of  the  plaster  business  of  the  town.  The  yard 
man  induced  this  mason  to  join  forces,  and  now  he  gives 
him  $i  a  ton  commission  on  all  he  can  sell.  The  mason 
was  not  a  business  man.  Ordering  and  remitting  for  plaster 
was  out  of  his  line,  so  now  when  he  gets  rid  of  all  of  that 
bother  and  gets  his  clean  $i  a  ton  for  all  that  he  uses  in 
his  jobs,  or  sells  to  other  masons,  he  is  satisfied.  "Too,  he 
helps  me  work  off  a  good  deal  of  plaster  that  becomes  a 
little  stale,"  the  yard  man  said  with  a  show  of  satisfaction. 
There  is  as  many  as  one  of  you  who  would  be  glad  to  have 
somebody  help  you  to  work  off  your  old  plaster,  isn't  there  ? 

"There  are  also  several  carpenters  working  for  me," 
said  this  same  yard  man.  "and  first  and  last  they  throw  a 
good  many  bills  my  way." 

"But  blank  'em,  no  dependence  can  be  placed  on  'em," 
a  dealer  remarked. 

Isn't  it  a  good  thing  to  know  that  in  advance?  We 
should  handle  men  as  we  do  horses.  Not  long  ago  a  yard 
man  took  me  out  behind  a  fine  black  horse  to  see  the  town. 
He  told  what  a  reliable  horse  it  was,  saying  that  his  wife 
and  children  could  drive  him  anywhere.  He  hitched  him  to 
go  into  another  yard  and  no  sooner  were  we  inside  the  office 
than  a  locomotive  came  puffing  around  the  curve.  I  sug- 
gested to  the  yard  man  that  he  would  better  look  out  for  his 


142  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

horse.  "O,  he  will  stand  hitched  anywhere,"  was  the  reply. 
There  are  men  of  that  kind ;  they  are  so  gentle  that  anybody 
can  drive  them,  and  they  would  stand  hitched  if  the 
heavens  were  falling.  Then  there  are  others  who  will  kick- 
over  the  traces  and  stand  hitched  nowhere.  If  you  took 
out  a  frisky,  ugly  horse,  how  would  you  drive  him?  With 
kind  words,  a  tight  rein,  and  every  minute  on  the  lookout 
for  him,  wouldn't  you?  That  is  the  way  the  frisky  con- 
tractor should  be  handled — kindly,  and  with  a  tight  rein. 
If  we  handle  him  in  the  right  way  he  will  help  us  along. 


A  HANDY  DOOR  RACK. 

The  consensus  of  opinion  is  that  stock  doors  should  be 
kept  in  pile — a  way  of  storing  them  that  has  several  ad- 
vantages. It  saves  room.  It  prevents  the  doors  from  warp- 
ing. It  keeps  them  clean.  With  a  light  frame  covered  with 
paper  and  laid  on  the  top  door  a  pile  of  doors  is  protected 
about  as  well  as  it  can  be.  I  do  not  remember  having  heard 
more  than  one  yard  man  say  that  standing  doors  on  end  is 
preferable  to  laying  them  flat  in  a  pile,  and  I  think  he  was 
prejudiced.  Piling  them  flat  is  the  method  adopted  by  the 
most  of  the  wholesale  sash  and  door  houses  I  have  visited. 
Some  of  these  wholesale  houses  have  racks  and  some  have 
not.  Those  that  have  not  use  the  floor  as  a  piling  ground. 
The  last  named  method,  however,  is  a  room  consumer  unless 
a  very  large  stock  is  carried,  as  in  order  to  get  easily  at  the 
different  grades  and  sizes  of  doors  each  must  be  in  a  sepa- 
rate pile.  W'hen  racks  are  used,  in  some  houses  several 
doors  of  the  various  kinds  are  placed  in  them  and  immediate 
orders  filled  from  the  racks,  while  the  bulk  of  the  doors  are 
piled  in  a  less  conspicuous  place  on  the  floor. 

From  the  accompanying  cut  any  yard  man  is  no  doubt 
mechanic  enough  to  make  a  rack  that  will  serve  his  purpose 
admirably.  There  is  nothing  original  in  the  idea,  as  the 
same  principle  may  be  seen  in  almost  any  bookcase.  The 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  143 

pieces  in  which  the  notches  are  cut  are  2x4  dimension,  as 
are  also  the  rails  which  reach  from  notch  to  notch.  This 
2x4  notched  piece  is  nailed  against  a  board  so  that  the  rail 
may  more  readily  stay  in  place.  The  perfect  adjustability 
of  the  rack  is  one  of  its  prominent  features. 

There  are  probably  not  many  sash  racks  in  the  country. 
I  have  seen  but  one  that  was  made  in  a  workmanlike  way. 


''Well  suited  to  a  yard  storeroom." 

The  breakage  in  a  wareroom  led  to  the  building  of  this  one. 
*'I  concluded  it  was  poor  business  to  pay  my  money  for 
sash  and  then  occasionally  have  a  light  knocked  out  after 
it  came  in  here/'  said  the  yard  man.  "I  used  to  think  it- 
senseless  when  one  of  the  boys  would  break  a  light,  but  one 
day  when  I  was  reaching  over  a  pile  of  sash  and  stuck  my 
toe  through  a  light  I  concluded  I  was  as  much  of  a  tumble 


144  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

heels  as  any  of  'em.  When  laying  sash  around  in  any  old 
way  in  a  crowded  wareroom  more  or  less  lights  are  bound 
to  be  broken.  Something  is  shoved  against  them  or  dropped 
upon  them.  Since  three  years-  ago,  when  I  made  this  rack, 
which  cost  maybe  $1.50  and  a  few  hours'  time,  there  has 
not  been  a  broken  light  of  glass  on  the  premises.  In  addi- 
tion, the  sash,  graded  as  to  size,  are  right  there  in  rows,  an4 
at  a  glance  I  can  tell  what  I  have  got." 


THE  GLORIOUS  FOURTH. 

Let  us  not  be  too  big,  nor  feel  too  big,  to  fill  up  on  fire 
crackers,  and  for  one  day  in  the  year  let  the  neighborhood 
know  that  we  still  live.  Prod  the  old  eagle  and  make  him 
scream  his  loudest.  We  must  not  forget  the  boys,  either, 
for  the  Fourth  is  their  day  as  well  as  ours.  We  have  all 
got  a  mortgage  on  it.  The  man  who  on  circus  day,  or  the 
Fourth  of  July,  forgets  that  he  was  once  a^boy  has  become 
ossified.  It  would  take  but  25  cents  to  make  a  king  of  the 
poorest  boy  in  town.  If  he  had  that  amount  to  invest  in 
noise  material  it  would  not  be  necessary  for  him  to  trail  on 
behind  the  rest  of  the  boys  and  pick  up  the  leavings,  but 
he  could  go  ahead  as  independent  as  a  lord  and  shoot  his 
own  crackers.  If  we  only  know  how  to  do  it  we  needn't 
beggar  ourselves  to  make  a  good  many  people  happy. 

This  morning  a  tramp  came  to  our  door  and  asked  for 
something  to  eat.  You  know  how  growing  boys  and  tramps 
will  clean  off  a  table ;  but  we  raked  up  enough  oat  meal, 
toast  and  tea  to  fill  this  fellow  up.  Then  I  asked  him  if 
he  smoked,  and  he  said  he  did  occasionally.  No  doubt  he 
thought  I  was  going  to  give  him  a  lecture  on  his  habits 
and  tell  him  that  he  now  saw  what  they  had  brought  him 
to,  but  I  pulled  out  the  biggest  cigar  I  could  find  on  the 
premises,  and  when  he  had  placed  it  between  his  lips  I 
lighted  a  match  and  held  it  to  the  end  of  it.  At  that  instant 
he  was  not  a  tramp — you  could  see  it  in  his  face  that  he 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  145 

wasn't — but  he  was  the  equal  of  a  man  who  wore  diamonds, 
and  who  was  the  owner  of  the  old  black  cow  that  was 
grazing  out  in  the  back  lot.  He  went  out  of  the  yard  and 
down  the  street  with  head  up,  and  I  felt  just  as  good  over  it 
as  though  I  had  entertained  King  Edward. 

As  your  hair  gets  silvered  and  the  wrinkles  settle  in 
the  back  of  your  neck,  does  it  come  to  you  that  there  is  less 
difference  in  men  than  you  used  to  think  there  was  ?  When 
we  were  young  and  big  headed  and  used  hair  oil  we  thought 
we  were  very  exclusive.  But  we  are  all  built  on  the  same 
grand  foundation,  and  you  know  how  it  is  when  we  have 
a  fine  location  and  a  miserable  building— some  day  down 
comes  the  building  and  up  goes  a  -better  one.'-  I  suppose 
that  by  and  by  all  of  us — tramps  as  well  as  the  rest — will 
be  so  ashamed  of  the  miserable  way  we  have  built  on  our 
glorious  possibilities  that  we  will  tear  down  and  build  again, 
and  as  our  gratitude  and  appreciation  increase  we  will  keep 
tearing  down  and  rebuilding  until  the  dome  on  the  mighty 
structure  of  character  will  reach  the  heavens.  Taking  this 
view  of  it,  every  one  of  us  ought  to  be  thankful  that  we 
were  born ;  aye,  even  though  we  be  tramps. 

If  we  could  get  through  the  Fourth  without  the  regula- 
tion oration,  following  the  activities  of  the  day,  we  would 
have  the  nightmare  lighter.  On  the  morning  of  the  Fourth 
the  regulation  oration  should  be  run  into  trie  cooler  for  the 
day  to  keep  it  out  of  mischief.  To  hear  a  one-hoss  lawyer 
inform  us  that  our  forefathers  landed  on  Plymouth  Rockx 
and  then  proceed  to  discuss  expansion,  is  enough  to  drive 
a  man  to  beer. 


FROM  COUNTRY  TO  CITY. 

Occasionally  a  yard  man  talks  of  the  great  advantages 
enjoyed  by  the  retail  dealers  in  the  large  towns.  They  are 
not  aware  that  such  talk  is  about  as  senseless  as  it  is  for  a 
dog  to  bay  at  the  moon,  but  it  really  is.  Having  mixed 
with  all  kinds  it  seems  to  me  that  by  a  big  majority  the 


146  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

yard  man  who  has  a  fair  trade  in  a  country  town  is  the  best 
off  of  any  of  them.  He  may  not  be  getting  rich  at  a  gallop- 
ing gait,  but  often  he  is  getting  rich  fast  enough.  I  could 
name  these  yard  men  by  the  score  who  are  not  only  doing  a 
good  lumber  trade  but  have  a  finger  in  nearly  all  the  other 
pies  in  the  town.  They  own  farms,  interests  in  banks,  mer- 
cantile houses,  and  are  literally  living  in  clover.  Their 
wives  are  not  giving  pink  teas  and  indulging  in  other  sim- 
ilar social  silliness,  but  it  is  all  the  better  for  them  that  they 


"Milk  my  old  black  cow." 

are  not.  All  of  us  are  foolish  enough  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, but  in  this  respect  the  city  folks  lead  us  country  Jakes 
two  to  one.  Now  in  about  ten  minutes,  instead  of  scrub- 
bing up  to  attend  some  old  Moneybag's  reception  over  on 
the  boulevard,  I  shall  swing  the  milk  pail  on  my  arm  and 
go  out  and  milk  my  old  black  cow.  When  I  come  in  the 
children  will  gather  around  the  table,  drink  so  much  milk 
they  will  protrude  like  aldermen,  go  to  bed  and  snore  like  so 
many  pigs,  and  get  up  in  the  morning  ready  to  eat  a  piece 
of  steak  as  big  as  a  shovel.  That  is  the  way  to  live — get 
right  down  to  nature.  Revel  among  the  trees,  gardens, 
grass  and  flowers,  and  if  dust  and  mosquitoes  are  thrown 
into  the  bargain  pay  no  attention  to  them. 

But  it  is  ever  the  way  of  man  that  he  is  sneaking  off 
after  strange  gods.  He  wants  sanitary  plumbing,  nose-in- 
the-air  social  functions,  no  one  to  peep  in  at  the  door  when 
he  is  sick,  and  hired  men  to  ride  in  the  procession,  so  as  to 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  147 

make  a  show,  when  he  is  dead.  That  is  the  way  they  live 
in  cities.  They  all  think  they  are  high  cockalorum,  but  nine- 
tenths  of  them  are  not  even  low  cockalorum.  They  are  so 
deeply  veneered  with  the  artificial  that  if  one  of  the  big  sash 
and  door  making  concerns  should  go  on  only  one  street  in 
Chicago  and  strip  the  veneer  off  the  people  it  would  get  a 
stock  sufficient  to  make  more  veneered  doors  than  it  will 
turn  out  in  a  year. 

I  was  in  Chicago  a  while  ago  and  got  there  just  as  the 
great  crowd  was  going  home  from  work  for  the  day.  There 
were  men,  women,  girls  and  boys  crowding  along  the  side- 
walk, and  most  of  them  going  to  suppers  that  the  poorest 
man  in  the  country  would  call  mighty  thin  grub.  Humanity 
streamed  along  and  there  was  not  a  face  in  the  thousands 
that  I  knew.  I  thought,  "If  I  were  home  even  my  dog 
would  know  me,  and  wag  his  tail,  glad  to  see  me."  Then 
when  I  had  gone  to  bed  at  the  hotel  I  didn't  go  to  sleep  for 
three  hours,  afraid  I  had  blown  out  the  gas  and  would 
wake  up  and  find  myself  dead.  In  the  city  churches  they 
use  contribution  plates.  They  can  see  everything  you  put 
on,  and  if  you  don't  come  down  handsomely  you  are  spot- 
ted, while  out  here  with  us,  where  butterfly  catchers  are 
used,  a  penny,  or  even  a  pants  button  if  you  feel  poor, 
makes  considerable  of  a  jingle. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  advantages  of  small  over  large 
towns  it  really  pains  me  to  hear  my  friends,  the  successful 
yard  men  around  the  country,  now  and  then  pining  for  the 
city.  If  they  were  to  go  there  and  get  mixed  up  with  the 
competition,  not  knowing  from  one  month  to  another 
whether  they  would  make  enough  money  to  pay  their  yard 
rent,  they  would  worry  the  fat  from  their  bones  and  become 
such  walking  skeletons  that  the  museum  managers  would 
lasso  them,  drag  them  in  and  exhibit  them  at  a  dime  a  head. 
Yet  the  other  day  a  man  who  owns  his  home,  yard,  stock, 
a  piano,  a  happy  wife  and  three  children,  asked  me  what  I 
thought  the  chances  would  be  if  he  should  go  to  a  certain 
large  town  and  open  a  retail  yard.  I  do  not  suppose  he  was 


i48  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

pleased  with  the  answer,  but  I  was  moved  to  say  that  in  all 
probability  in  less  than  six  months  there  would  not  be 
enough  of  him  left  for  his  name  to  cling  to. 


HOW  THE  POOR  SWEDE  BIT. 

It  was  a  pretty  hot  time  in  the  old  town  according  to 
the  story  of  the  yard  man.  He  pointed  over  to  the  place 
where  he  said  at  that  time  his  competitor  was  located,  but 
there  is  no  competitor  there  now. 

''This  man  was  selling  dimension  for  $14,"  said  he, 
"and  I  did  not  want  to  meet  that  price  unless  I  was  posi- 
tively obliged  to.  One  day  a  Swede  came  to  my  place,  and 
of  course  the  first  information  he  gave  me  was  that  he 
could  buy  dimension  at  the  other  yard  for  $14.  Then  I 
had  to  do  something.  I  told  him  in  a  manner  that  he  would 
think  I  was  doing  something  big  that  I  would  sell  him  2x4 
dimension  for  i  cent  a  foot,  2x6  for  i£  cents,  and  2x8  for 
2  cents.  I  tried  also  to  make  it  plain  to  him  that  when 
*he  bought  dimension  on  that  basis  he  could  figure  it  up 
for  himself  and  know  just  what  he  was  doing.  All  he  had 
to  do  was  to  measure  off  the  feet  and  he  would  have  it. 
The  proposition  struck  him  favorably.  He  not  only  bought 
his  supply  of  me  but  he  spread  the  good  news  among  his 
neighbors  and  several  of  them  came  and  wanted  some  of 
that  cent-a-foot  dimension.  It  looked  cheap  to  them.  Of 
course  the  dimension  sold  in  this  manner  brought  me  $15 
a  thousand." 

This  yard  man  is  still  an  advocate  of  selling  by  the  piece 
to  some  extent.  "Jim,  let  me  take  your  book,"  he  said  to 
his  man.  It  was  a  little  book  that  fitted  the  vest  pocket  in 
which  had  been  written  the  leading  items  in  the  yard,  with 
the  price  carried  out  per  piece. 

"It  isn't  every  man  who  works  in  the  yard  who  can 
readily  figure  how  much  a  few  boards  come  to  at  so  much 
a  thousand,"  he  said,  "but  when  he  has  such  a  list  as  this 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  149 

by  him  he  can  sell  stuff,  so  far  as  the  price  is  concerned,  as 
easily  as  anybody  and,  what  is  as  good,  he  gets  better  prices 
for  the  most  of  it  when  he  sells  by  the  piece  than  I  do  when 
I  sell  by  the  thousand." 

When  I  said  goodbye  to  this  dealer  at  the  station  I  did 
not  say  to  him  it  would  be  time  spent  in  vain  ever  to  look 
for  him  down  stream,  but  that  thought  was  in  my  head. 


MORE  OR  FEWER  YARDS. 

A  yard  man  writes  from  Minnesota,  saying  that  in  his 
opinion  I  am  wrong  in  the  prophecy  that  there  will  be  an 
increased  number  of  yards.  He  thinks  that  the  reverse  will 
be  true;  that  many  of  the  yards  which  are  now  "hanging 
on  by  the  skin  of  the  teeth  will  let  go."  Well,  possibly.  I 
do  not  claim  to  be  the  law  and  gospel  in  the  matter.  No 
doubt  there  are  plenty  of  others  who  can  see  as  far  into  a 
stone  quarry  as  I  can.  It  seems  reasonable  to  me,  however, 
that  the  more  people  the  more  goods  in  every  line  are  sold, 
and,  ordinary  conditions  ruling,  the  more  people  there  are 
to  sell  the  goods.  I  should  like  to  take  the  short  end  of  a 
wager  of  about  4  cents  that  I  can  name  200  towns  in  every 
one  of  which  a  new  yard  will  go  in  before  one  will  drop 
out.  Yards  are  not  dropping  out  to  any  alarming  extent. 
A  yard  man  may  get  weary  in  well  doing  and  conclude  it 
would  be  better  for  him  to  stop  swapping  new  dollars  for 
old  ones,  but  it  is  a  rare  occurrence  for  his  yard  to  go  out 
of  existence.  Somebody  is  ready  to  step  in  and  take  hold  of 
it.  It  is  a  common  trait  of  human  nature  that  we  think  \ve 
can  succeed  where  others  may  fail.  We  think  that  the  other 
fellow  did  not  treat  his  customers  as  he  should  have  done, 
that  he  did  not  carry  the  right  kind  of  stock,  and  possibly 
that  he  was  not  any  great  shake  of  a  man  anyhow.  We 
would  improve  on  his  methods  at  every  turn — of  course  \ve 
would ! 

There  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  mania  for  owning  lumber 


150  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

yards.  The  other  day  a  man  who  ran  a  laundry  told  me 
that  he  was  anxious  to  get  into  the  retail  lumber  business. 
He  asked  me  questions  for  half  an  hour — how  much  capital 
would  be  required,  the  present  price  of  lumber  at  wholesale, 
about  the  lien  law,  and  so  on.  He  knew  nothing  about  the 
business,  but  he  had  kept  his  eyes  open  and  had  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  there  is  none  better.  I  think  his  laundry  had 
not  proved  a  bonanza.  Some  man  who  had  worked  in  a 
yard  had  proposed  to  go  in  with  him,  and  they  will  probably 
hitch  up  together  and  buy  or  put  in  a  yard  at  some  point. 

There  are  hundreds  of  yard  men  who  have  had  their 
eye  teeth  cut,  and  who  are  not  going  to  spread  out  more 
unless  the  opportunity  suits  them.  No  doubt  this  Minnesota 
man  is  one  of  that  kind.  But  you  know  everybody  is  not 
of  that  stamp.  There  is  no  truer  saying  than  "there  are 
others."  It  was  not  a  week  ago  that  a  man  said  to  me  that 
in  his  opinion  the  dealers  in  a  three-yard  town  were  "just 
holding  up  the  people,"  and  he  thought  if  a  man  would 
start  a  yard  and  sell  at  the  right  figures  he  would  do  well. 
This  man  would  call  it  doing  well  if  he  made  $500  a  year, 
as  on  that  amount  he  and  his  wife  could  live  comfortably. 
Now,  if  some  man  who  had  worked  in  a  yard  should  come 
along,  give  this  other  man  a  little  taffy  and  offer  to  go  in 
with  him  and  manage  the  business,  in  the  yard  would  go. 
The  man  who  imagines  that  the  dealers  are  getting  exorbi- 
tant prices,  has  quite  a  wad  of  money,  is  doing  nothing  and 
would  like  to  serve  his  country  in  some  such  way  as  running 
a  lumber  yard  and  selling  at  "right  prices."  And  you  have 
probably  learned  that  almost  without  number  there  are  men 
of  little  experience  who  are  ready  to  link  themselves  with 
other  men's  capital. 

Thus  the  tendency  is  in  every  direction,  and  there  is 
only  one  thing  that  any  of  us  can  do  about  it,  and  that  is 
to  take  it  as  it  comes.  It  does  away  with  many  a  disap- 
pointment when  we  have  reached  a  point  that  we  can  take 
things  as  they  come;  do  our  best  and  then  face  the  conse- 
quences like  little  men. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  151 

I  am  no  believer  that  because  a  town  has  apparently 
yards  enough  no  other  dealer  has  a  right  to  locate  there- 
If  he  has  no  such  right  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  a 
lie.  This  is  a  great  and  free  country,  and  you,  I,  everybody, 
should  be  accorded  the  right  to  make  an  effort  to  live  in 
any  town  at  any  legitimate  business.  The  new  comer  may 
get  his  foot  in  it  clear  to  the  knee,  or  he  may  win  out.  Men 
are  more  than  lumber  yards.  The  determined,  upright, 
courteous  dealer  will  generally  succeed,  but  the  man  who 
lacks  these  qualities  has  -a  millstone  around  his  neck.  I 
could  name  dealers  who  could  go  into  any  town  and  success- 


"Independent  as  a  whole  herd  of  hogs." 

fully  buck  the  whole  shooting  match.  There  are  those  who 
are  doing  it  right  along.  I  have  in  mind  now  a  man  who 
opened  a  yard  in  a  pretty  warm  town,  and  it  was  predicted 
he  would  fall  as  flat  as  a  pancake.  Having  been  in  business 
a  year  he  opened  his  books  to  me,  and  the  result  showed 
$8,000  profit.  This  man  knows  his  business  from  a  to  z. 
He  is  neither  to  be  fooled  nor  fooled  with.  He  is  as  inde- 
pendent as  a  whole  herd  of  hogs  and  as  obliging  as  he  is 


152  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

independent.  You  can't  easily  down  a  man  of  that  stamp. 
He  will  pick  the  fruit  of  success  from  the  tree  of  life  up 
higher  on  the  limbs  than  the  common  mortal  can  reach. 


THE  PRUDENT  SCHEMER. 

We  must  admire  a  resourceful  man.  His  boat  will 
gayly  ride  the  rapids  of  life  when  the  ordinary  craft  will 
get  tumbled  upside  down.  Not  one  of  us,  of  course,  means 
a  resourceful  man  in  an  illegitimate  way.  There  are  people 
who  will  deceive  and  call  it  resource;  but  that  kind  does  not 
pay.  When  a  man  comes  to  us  as  a  customer,  is  willing 
to  pay  his  money  in  return  for  our  goods,  he  is  every  time 
entitled  to  honorable  treatment.  The  money  is  what  we 
want — it  is  what  we  hang  out  our  sign  for — and  the  man 
who  assists  us  to  it  is  certainly  doing  us  a  favor.  A  yard 
man  was  telling  me  that  his  predecessor  sold  a  lot  of  D 
stock  for  C.  When  the  builder  had  hauled  the  lumber  home 
his  carpenter  told  him  he  did  not  get  the  grade  for  which 
he  had  bargained,  and  when  looking  it  over  they  found  D 
plainly  marked  on  one  or  more  of  the  boards.  The  average 
decent  retailer  would  feel  like  crawling  into  a  rathole  when 
confronted  with  such  a  piece  of  deception  as  that. 

Here  are  points  to  illustrate  the  right  kind  of  scheming : 
I  was  in  an  office  where  a  man  wanted  an  i8-inch  board 
for  a  certain  purpose.  When  informed  that  he  could  not 
get  it  of  the  quality  desired  he  shook  his  head,  and  started 
away.  The  yard  man  put  in  a  claim,  however.  He  told 
him  that  for  the  use  to  which  the  board  was  to  be  put  two 
9-inch,  or  better  still,  three  6-inch  boards  would  be  an 
improvement.  The  man,  with  his  hand  on  the  knob  of  the 
door,  hesitated  a  minute,  and  then  said  he  would  take  the 
narrow  boards.  This  ability  to  substitute  is  a  valuable  one 
for  the  lumber  salesman.  To  be  sure,  this  particular  sale 
amounted  to  only  about  60  cents,  but  the  valuable  point  was 
that,  the  man  was  kept  at  the  yard.  One  of  our  famous  retail 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  153 

dry  goods  men  remarked  that  if  a  lady  wanted  only  a  yard 
of  three-cent  ribbon  he  did  not  want  her  to  leave  his  store 
without  having  an  opportunity  to  buy  just  what  suited  her. 
If  some  of  us  two-for-a-cent  fellows  would  be  to  the  infinite 
pains  to  build  up  a  trade  that  the  big  guns  have  been  we 
needn't  be  two-for-a-cent  men  all  our  lives.  Don't  you  think 
so? 

In  a  yard  I  saw  a  lot  of  oddly  worked  stuff  and  the 
yard  man  said  it  was  some  he  got  for  a  Catholic  institution 
in  the  place.  "They  wanted  a  ceiling  for  a  long  porch,"  he 
explained,  "and  at  the  same  time  they  desired  that  the  ceiling 


"Go  to  Africa  to  do  missionary  work." 

should  act  as  roofing,  so  I  had  the  stuff  worked  beaded 
ceiling  on  one  side  and  grooved  roofing  on  the  other."  I 
call  that  the  right  kind  of  resource.  There  are  yard  men 
who  say,  "Sell  people  what  they  want ;"  which,  in  my 
opinion,  is  a  bad  doctrine,  for  half  the  time  people  do  not 
know  what  they  want.  I  believe  it  holds  true  that  the  yard 
man  who  has  thoroughly  learned  his  business  and  is  alive 
to  holding  his  trade  can  advise  and  influence  to  their  benefit 
one-half  of  the  customers  who  come  to  his  offices.  I  have 
heard  good  yard  men  put  this  as  high  as  75  percent.  You 
will  thus  observe  that  you  need  not  necessarily  go  to  Africa 
to  do  missionary  work. 

The  yard  man  should  not  assume  that  the  customer  who 


154  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

comes  into  his  office  knows  anything,  and  at  the  same  time  it 
is  best  if  possible  to  lead  him  to  think  that  he  knows  it  all. 
There  is  no  man  to  whom  we  will  pay  homage  so  readily 
as  to  him  who  thinks  we  are  wise  or  great.  At  first  thought 
we  might  say  that  we  common  people  bow  to  greatness,  but 
I  think  about  the  size  of  it  is  that  greatness  often  bows  to 
us.  The  fact  is  that  greatness,  so  called,  is  so  dependent 
upon  the  people  for  its  standing  that  it  trembles  lest  we 
stand  from  under  and  it  take  a  fall. 

But  as  I  was  going  to  say,  I  wear  socks,  except  in  warm 
weather  when  I  go  barefooted,  arid  not  long  ago  I  found 
I  had  run  out  of  them.  Ordinarily  my  best  girl  buys  my 
socks,  shirts,  neckties  etc.  and  I  would  rather  she  would  be 
an  expert  in  selecting  these  goods  than  to  go  storming  up  and 
down  the  country  asking  to  be  permitted  to  vote  and  become 
a  man  among  men.  I  like  a  man  first  rate,  but  on  general 
principles  I  like  a  woman  better,  and  I  rather  like  to  see 
them  in  their  respective  spheres.  If  a  man  should  consider 
it  his  duty  to  buy  home  supplies,  tend  babies,  fight  moths  in 
the  household,  and  tell  me  when  it  is,  time  to  go  and  get 
shaved,  I  should  object.  These  delicate  duties  belong  to 
women,  and  women  only.  It  follows  that  if  I  want  to  pre- 
vent men  from  breaking  in  and  doing  this  work  I  don't  want 
to  see  woman  break  in  on  man's  preserves.  That  is  the 
way  I  think  tonight,  but  maybe  it  will  not  last  long.  The 
man  is  of  little  account  who  sets  down  his  foot  and 
says,  I  will  think  thus  so  and  so,  forever  and  aye.  When  we 
take  that  position  we  are  talking  like  fools,  for  our  mental 
as  well  as  our  physical  body  is  constantly  changing. 

Regarding  those  socks,  the  dealer  led  me  from  box  to 
box  as  easily  as  though  he  had  a  string  tied  to  my  ear,  and 
when  my  best  girl  came  home  she  said  I  did  first  rate  as  a 
shopper — that  she  was  proud  of  me.  That  increased  my 
respect  for  the  dry  goods  man.  I  rather  fancied  a  blue  and 
yellow  stripe,  so  that  when  I  pulled  up  my  pants  legs  it 
would  be  so  loud  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  populace, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  155 

but  the  merchant  led  me  away  from  them,  and  now  I  see  it 
was  for  my  good. 

When  we  influence  a  man,  and  he  finds  that  we  were 
unselfish  in  the  matter  and  were  really  trying  to  do  him  a 
good  turn,  that  man  is  very  liable  to  come  our  way  again. 
If  that  dry  goods  man  had  socked  it  to  me  on  the  socks,  to 
speak  euphoniously,  I  should  have  avoided  him.  My  best 
girl  at  my  request  would  have  been  so  kind  as  to  buy  her 
duds  at  the  other  corner  store.  I  don't  believe  we  half  know 
how  well  it  pays  us  when  we  do  a  decent  act.  And  I  don't 
believe  we  know  how  easily  people  see  through  us  when 
we  are  not  disposed  to  be  decent.  We  don't  turn  these 
propositions  over  in  our  mind  half  often  enough. 

I  was  sitting  in  an  office  when  a  man  stepped  in  and 
inquired  about  shingles.  "Yes,"  said  the  yard  man,  "I 
have  a  good  white  pine  and  a  good  white  cedar." 

"No  red  cedars?" 

"None  on  hand  just  now,  but  either  of  the  kinds  named 
would  make  a  better  roof  than  red  cedar." 

About  this  time  I  could  see  there  was  something  the  mat- 
ter with  the  prospective  buyer.  Then  he  spoke  up  like  a  little 
man  and  informed  the  yard  man  that  when  he  bought  red 
cedars  for  his  horse  barn  last  summer  this  same  yard  man 
told  him  they  were  the  best  shingle  in  the  market,  and 
he  wanted  more  of  them.  The  yard  man  wiggled  about  a 
little  and  I  really  pitied  him.  You  see,  he  had  forgotten 
to  stay  by  his  story.  The  man  didn't  buy  either  the  white 
pine  or  white  cedar,  and  who  could  blame  him?  No  man 
delights  in  being  made  a  monkey  of. 

One  of  the  finest  sights  in  the  world  is  the  man  who 
walks  head  up,  because  he  is  entitled  to  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  his  intention  to  treat  every  human  being  white. 
It  is  a  dirty  conscience  that  rubs  a  fellow's  nose  in  the 
mud.  It  takes  a  mighty  smart  mean  man  to  avoid  getting 
his  foot  into  a  trap  of  his  own  setting.  His  trap  is  oftener 


156  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

than  otherwise  a  boomerang  that  whirls  around  and  around 
and  knocks  his  own  head  off.  We  are  not  all  actors,  and 
often  people  can  look  through  us  as  though  we  were  glass. 


WHERE  CARELESSNESS  MAY  SUCCEED. 

There  is  no  soft  spot  in  my  heart  for  the  slovenly  lum- 
berman, as  a  lumberman,  but  if  such  he  be  he  can  .feed  his 
soul  on  the  reflection  that  he  is  in  the  business  where  he 
can  succeed  better  than  in  any  other  line.  I  know  a  man 
whose  yard,  in  polite  language,  looks  like  thunder  the  year 
around.  He  does  not  seem  to  care  in  what  shape  his  piles 
are,  and  whether  the  ends  of  them  are  even  or  not  is  of 
no  consequence.  A  pile  of  dimension  looked  as  though  a 
green  boy  had  thrown  it  together.  Let  me  say  to  his  credit, 
however,  that  he  has  a  good  office.  You  have  never  seen 
a  man  yet  so  bad  that  you  couldn't  find  a  white  spot  in 
him  if  you  looked  for  it.  There  are  those  who,  in  their 
minds,  will  have  us  done  up  quickly  and  thoroughly  when 
the  time  comes,  but  it  does  seem  to  me  that  this  white 
spot  will  act  as  seed.  And  let  us  all  hope  that  from  it  we 
may  grow  up  better  beings  than  we  are  now.  I  don't  care 
how  good  we  may  call  ourselves,  there  will  be  plenty  of 
room  for  improvement. 

If  the  merchant  in  any  other  line  should  keep  his  goods 
in  no  better  shape  than  this  lumberman  does  you  know  what 
the  result  would  be.  Much  of  his  stock  would  spoil  on  his 
hands.  The  goods  would  get  dirty,  eaten  by  rats,  moths, 
and  his  tidy  customers  would  go  elsewhere  to  buy.  We  all 
know  that  this  would  be  the  outcome.  Yet,  while  this  man's 
lumber  has  sprawled  around,  shingles  and  lath  always  in 
place  to  be  kicked  out  of  the  way,  he  has  made  money.  He 
owns  his  yard  and  stock  and  has  built  a  good  house  which 
I  suppose  his  wife  keeps  in  better  order  than  he  keeps  his 
yard,  for  that  is  the  way  it  goes — like  and  unlike  oftener 
than  otherwise  come  together. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  157 

I  trust  this  little  screed  may  be  no  excuse  for  the  indo- 
lent and  slovenly  to  go  into  the  retail  lumber  business,  but 
if  they  feel  their  life  depends  on  it  the  business  will  use 
them  better  than  the  millinery  business  would.  If  they 
have  any  pride — and  we  all  have — they  may  occasionally 
feel  ashamed,  but  all  the  same  their  lumber  will  be  wanted, 
and  there  will  be  farmers  who  would  probably  think  it 
dudish  to  keep  the  piles  of  lumber  too  slick,  and  who  will 
come  in  the  office  and  spit  on  the  floor  should  there  be  no 
other  handy  place. 


THE  CONTRACTOR  AS  A  FACTOR. 

I  have  met  several  contractors  of  late.  A  contractor  who 
knows  his  business,  when  he  has  nothing  else  to  do  hangs 
around  the  lumber  offices  during  the  cold  and  stormy 
weather.  He  can  there  learn  the  drift  of  lumber  prices,  and 
hear  of  proposed  building,  especially  by  farmers.  Not  long 
ago  I  saw  a  yard  man  hand  a  contractor  a  lumber  list,  evi- 
dently received  recently.  The  contractor  hastily  looked  it 
over  and  handed  it  back.  This  gave  me  a  cue  and  after  the 
builder  had  gone  I  incidentally  wrung  into  the  conversation 
something  about  the  relation  which  should  exist  between 
the  yard  man  and  contractor,  and  the  former  pounced  on 
to  the  question  just  as  I  wished  he  would.  Yfou  know,  occa- 
sionally, things  go  our  way — and  then  again  they  don't. 

"This  is  the  position  I  take,"  said  the  retail  man.  "The 
contractor  and  retail  lumberman  are  very  closely  allied  in 
business  matters.  There  should  be  no  friction  between  them. 
Now,  take  that  man  who  went  out  of  here  a  little  while 
ago.  He  is  a  good  builder  and  'onto'  his  job  in  every  way. 
For  me  to  make  much  money  out  of  that  man  is  impossible. 
At  the  same  time  I  want  his  friendship  and  influence.  If 
he  cannot  buy  lumber  at  home  to  suit  him  he  will  have  it 
shipped  in.  He  is  as  good  as  the  wheat,  consequently  I  say 
to  him,  'Here,  order  what  you  want  through  me  and  pay  me 
a  little  something  for  my  work.'  We  have  never  had  a 


158  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

misunderstanding.  Every  invoice  is  open  to  him,  and  all 
about  cash  discounts  he  understands  as  well  as  I  do._  Yes,  it 
is  working  cheap,  but  in  a  case  like  that  I  had  rather  work 
cheap  than  not  at  all. 

"Now,  understand  I  draw  the  line  right  on  men  of  this 
stamp.  Take  your  average  flip-flap  carpenter  and  you  are 
better  off  to  let  him  alone.  I  enter  into  no  such  arrange- 
ment with  them.  Last  week  a  carpenter  took  a  job  of 
adding  a  kitchen  to  a  house  out  on  the  edge  of  town  and 
came  in  my  place  to  price  the  stuff.  He  seemed  to  think  that 
because  he  had  blossomed  out  as  a  contractor  he  was  enti- 
tled to  all  sorts  of  discounts.  I  couldn't  see  it  in  that  light. 
He  isn't  worth  a  cent  himself  and  the  house  he  is  going  to 
fix  up  is  mortgaged  for  all  it  is  worth.  He  didn't  come  back, 
and  I  didn't  cry  over  it." 

"Who  is  your  best  customer?"  I  ventured  to  ask  this 
man. 

"The  farmer  ten  days  in  the  week,"  was  the  reply.  "He 
is  sometimes  slow  to  pay  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  lose  any 
sleep  over  the  account.  And  then,  blessed  be  his  name,  he 
doesn't  know  a  No.  4  board  from  C  finish !" 

It  seems  to  me  the  view  this  yard  man  took  of  the  con- 
tractor is  a  sensible  one.  Few  contractors  are  going  to  order 
lumber  from  some  scalper  if  they  can  do  as  well  at  home. 
I  know  builders  who  ship  in  their  material,  and  in  my 
opinion  the  yard  men  in  those  towns  should  see  that  it  is 
stopped.  A  compromise  should  be  made,  if  possible.  The 
influence  of  a  builder  unloading  a  car  of  stuff  on  the  side 
track  is  not  a  healthy  one  for  the  yard  man.  I  would  rather 
the  car  would  come  through  my  yard  if  I  didn't  make  out  of 
it  more  than  enough  to  buy  a  good  cigar.  A  farmer  may 
see  the  builder  unloading  the  car  and  say  to  himself,  "If  he 
can  buy  lumber  and  make  money  by  shipping  it  in,  maybe  I 
can ;"  so  when  he  builds  a  barn  in  he  ships  it.  You  see,  it 
is  a  bad  influence  which,  like  a  wave,  keeps  spreading  and 
spreading,  and  we  don't  know  where  it  will  end. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  159 

DISADVANTAGES  OF  SMALL  STOCK  ROOMS. 

Our  stock  rooms  are  no  doubt  too  small.  Not  long  ago 
I  was  in  a  new  shed  that  cost  several  hundred  dollars,  with 
the  stock  room  immediately  in  the  rear  of  the  office.  It 
was  small,  dark,  and  you  know  what  accompanies  such  con- 
ditions— dirt  always.  If  there  had  been  a  bushel  of  rats  in 
there  no  one  without  a  lantern  could  have 'seen  them.  They 
could  live  and  breed  unmolested.  It  could  not  be  swept, 
and  really  there  was  no  vacant  floor  room  to  sweep.  The 
yard  manager  wanted  a  sash  from  the  room  and  he  went 
in,  tumbled  things  over,  brought  a  sash  out  to  the  light 
and  found  it  was  not  the  desired  size. 

"Isn't  very  light  in  there,  is  it?"  was  asked. 

"Blank  it,"  was  the  reply,  "I  don't  know  why  any  man 
should  build  such  a  stock  room  as  that." 

The  yard  was  one  of  a  line,  therefore  he  felt  at  liberty 
to  free  his  mind.  When  the  old  man  is  a  hundred  miles 
away  we  can  talk,  you  know. 

There  are  scores  of  such  rooms,  and  there  are  successful 
lumbermen  who  build  them,  too.  Your  best  arranged  prem- 
ises and  the  biggest  trade  do  not  always  go  together.  There 
are  yard  men  who  are  doing  a  large  business  but  who  never 
think  of  doing  it  conveniently  or  comfortably.  They  make 
two  motions  when  one  would  answer  the  purpose  if  they 
were  so  fixed  that  the  motion  would  count.  I  saw  scales 
the  other  day  as  many  as  twenty  feet  from  the  office  front. 
It  was  a  drizzly  afternoon,  and  three  times  while  I  sat  there 
the  yard  man  turned  up  his  coat  collar  and  went  out  to  take 
the  weight  of  wagons.  This  man  said  he  had  been  in  busi- 
ness there  for  eight  years,  and  of  course  as  he  had  scales 
in  when  he  opened  up  all  of  these  eight  years  he  had  been 
running  out  through  rain  and  snow  to  do  his  weighing.  No 
doubt  he  has  whipped  the  rain  from  his  hat  and  kicked  the 
snow  from  his  feet  a  hundred  times,  yet  there  the  scales 
remain.  Moreover,  he  has  got  along  in  business  fairly  well 
— we  may  say  first  rate.  Any  rating  book  will  probably  put 


160  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

him  down  at  $10,000.  It  is  easy  enough  to  ask :  "Why  does 
he  not  put  his  scales  where  they  ought  to  be,  so  that  he  can 
stand  by  the  front  window  of  his  office  and  manipulate  the 
lever  and  weights?"  It  is  dead  easy  to  answer  the  question, 
too.  He  has  never  had  an  eye  to  the  conveniences  of  doing 
business.  We  all  know  men  who  are  slouchy  in  their  dress, 
who  spill  soup  over  the  front  of  their  vest  and  coat  every 
time  they  eat,  and  let  it  remain  there.  These  men  never 
reform.  You  could  not  reform  them  if  you  should  try. 
Their  wives  have  failed  to  reform  them.  Their  manners 
in  this  respect  are  due  to  their  makeup.  I  am  not  chiding 
them — let  them  spill  soup  on  their  clothes  if  they  want  to. 
I  don't  know  as  it  is  very  sensible  to  single  out  these  men 
in  this  connection,  either,  for  the  most  of  us  have  some 
measly  little  habit  that  ought  to  be  pounded  out  of  us  with 
a  club,  but  these  men  are  cited  to  illustrate  that  it  seems  to 
be  impossible  for  all  men  to  have  an  eye  out  for  those  little 
matters  which  will  help  them  along  in  business. 

My  idea  of  a  stock  room  is  that  it  should  be  large  and 
light.  It  does  not  cost  much  to  make  it  so.  The  difference 
in  dollars  and  cents  would  neither  break  nor  make  a  man. 
And  see  what  an  advantage  such  a  room  would  be.  Your 
doors  could  then  be  displayed.  I  was  in  an  office  when  a 
lady  came  in  and  inquired  for  a  front  door.  The  yard  man 
led  the  way  to  the  stock  room,  and  having  nothing  else  to 
do  I  sauntered  along  behind.  The  yard  man  had  only  one 
blessed  door  that  was  in  shape  to  be  seen.  All  the  others 
were  still  bundled  up.  He  got  a  saw  and  hammer  and 
pounded  away,  the  lady  during  the  process  standing  as  far 
away  as  she  could  and  pulling  her  skirts  around  her  as  you 
have  seen  your  wife  do  when  she  thought  there  was  a  mouse 
around.  Finally  the  door  was  set  alongside  the  other  one. 
"Are  these  all  you  have?"  the  lady  asked. 

"No,"  said  the  yard  man,  "I  have  got  another  one  here 
somewhere."  Then  he  wrestled  with  several  bundles  of 
sash  to  get  at  another  door.  I  thought,  standing  there :  "It 
is  a  pity."  Now  what  if  the  lady  had  been  ushered  into  a 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


161 


clean,  large,  light  room,  with  doors  of  every  kind  in  stock 
arranged  in  a  row  for  her  inspection  ?  Don't  you  think  she 
would  have  left  that  yard  with  a  better  impression  than  she 
did?  Yet  we  can  guess  what  this  particular  yard  man 
might  say  about  it.  Maybe  he  would  answer  us:  ''Darn 
her  impression!  I  sold  her  the  door!" 

But,  beloved,  any  business  man  who  takes  that  position 
is  on  the  wrong  track.  The  impression  you  have  of  me  is 
the  reason  you  like  or  dislike  me.  Impressions  are  the  father 


''She  thought  there  was  a  mouse  around." 

of  likes  and  dislikes.  Not  a  month  ago  I  visited  a  yard  and 
the  impression  I  formed  of  the  yard  man  was  the  reason  I 
picked  up  my  little  grip  and  went  to  a  yard  up  the  street. 
This  man  is  all  right  in  his  way — a  good  enough  man  prob- 
ably— but  he  was  a  little  lofty  in  the  head,  and  I  was  of  the 
opinion  that  elsewhere  I  might  find  more  agreeable  com- 
pany. When  you  can  strike  a  good  fellow  life  is  too  short 
to  put  in  your  time  with  the  others.  You  don't  have  to  do 
it,  so  what  is  the  sense  of  it? 


i62  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

We  should  be  careful  as  to  the  impression  we  make.  It 
is  a  larger  part  of  his  capital  in  business  than  many  a  man 
is  aware.  You  have  been  told  of  a  yard  man  who,  when  he 
built  a  shed,  fixed  up  a  stock  room  with  special  reference 
to  the  convenience  of  the  ladies.  His  yard  is  in  the  center 
of  a  good  sized  town,  is  visited  by  many  lady  customers,  and 
he  thought  he  would  try  to  keep  their  trade  by  pleasing  them. 
He  argued  that  when  they  went  to  shop  for  dry  goods,  gro- 
ceries, shoes  or  bonnets  they  found  the  goods  displayed  for 
sale,  with  seats  for  them  to  sit  on  and  rest  if  they  felt  so 
inclined,  and  he  asked  himself  why  his  place  should  be  an 
exception.  They  can  visit  his  stock  room  as  they  can  visit 
stores,  and  carry  away  the  impression  with  them  that  it  was 
a  comfortable  place  to  trade.  This  man  does  no  carpenter 
work  when  the  ladies  are  there  making  their  selections.  Any 
time  a  day  they  may  come  in  everything  is  in  order.  This 
pleases  the  ladies,  and  without  a  doubt  the  men  as  well.  We 
coarse  creatures  can  put  up  with  many  a  thing  that  would 
grind  on  the  sensibilities  and  good  taste  of  the  ladies,  but 
none  of  us  has  ever  been  heard  to  object  to  a  system  in  a 
business  place  that  will  save  us  time. 


A  PESSIMISTIC  LUMBER  SELLER. 

Somehow  I  cannot  fancy  a  rank  pessimist  any  more 
than  I  can  a  rattle-brained  optimist.  While  we  are  here 
on  earth  our  place  is  neither  underground  nor  in  the  sky. 
Live  your  life  while  you  are  living  it,  is  what  I  try  to 
teach  my  children.  We  know  less  about  the  life  to  come 
than  we  do  about  this  one;  therefore  let  us  pay  proper 
attention  to  this  one  while  we  are  about  it.  Furthermore, 
let  us  love  it  while  we  are  living  it. 

A  few  weeks  ago  I  ran  up  against  a  yard  man  who  was 
one  of  the  worst  pessimists  I  had  ever  met.  I  could  not 
conclude  what  kind  of  metal  he  was  molded  from.  Ordi- 
narily the  pessimist  is  disappointed  and  sour.  His  liver 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  163 

is  out  of  order  and  he  looks  through  green-eyed  goggles. 
You  know  the  loaves  of  bread  our  best  girls  make  sometimes 
get  sour  and  will  not  rise.  It  is  so  with  the  pessimist. 
He  gets  sour  and  won't  rise  and,  like  sour  bread,  becomes 
soggier  and  soggier.  I  could  not  understand,  however, 
why  this  man  should  have  occasion  to  eject  all  the  yeast- 
like  quality  from  his  nature.  Financially  he  certainly  has 
succeeded.  Mentally  he  is  as  bright  as  the  most  of  us. 
Incidentally  he  told  me  he  belonged  to  a  church,  and  it 
was  on  my  tongue's  end  to  ask  him  what  business  he  had 
in  a  church  where  there  should  be  hope  and  praise,  with  his 
inclinations  dragging  along  on  the  floor  where  his  feet 


"He  belonged  to  a  church." 

are— but  of  course  I  didn't.  You  know  how  many  things 
we  would  like  to  do  and  say  but  through  policy  or  cowardice 
do  not  do  or  say  them.  After  all,  with  the  most  of  us  policy 
is  the  most  powerful  engine  that  propels  our  actions.  It 
makes  me  half  ashamed  of  myself  and  my  kind  when  I  say 
it,  but  it  is  so. 

When  talking  about  trade  and  his  determination  to  use 
the  people  right  in  the  matter  of  dealing  he  explained  how 
ungrateful  the  public  is.  "You  get  no  thanks  for  what  you 
do,"  he  said.  Then  he  appealed  to  me  in  the  following 
manner :  "I  have  read  the  paper  with  which  you  have  been 


i64  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

connected  for  years ;  during  all  those  years  you  have  been 
saying  good  things  about  the  lumbermen  of  the  country, 
and  I  want  to  ask  you  how  many  of  them  have  even  said, 
'thank  you'  for  it." 

I  told  him  I  did  not  look  at  it  in  that  light.  When  I 
mentioned  a  man  I  did  it  as  a  duty,  and  often  not  knowing 
nor  caring  whether  he  would  see  the  mention  or  not.  He  is 
treated  as  a  piece  of  news  the  same  as  a  saw  mill  or 
lumber  yard  would  be,  and  I  expected  no  thanks  from  him. 
In  fact,  that  on  several  occasions  during  my  uneventful 
career  I  had  made  mention  of  men  in  a  way  that  if  they 
could  have  given  either  thanks  or  a  club  over  the  head  it 
would  have  been  the  club.  "There  you  are,  a  prominent 
man  in  the  trade,"  said  I.  "If  you  should  die  tonight  you 
would  be  worth  a  half  column  obituary  notice,  and  I  should 
be  thankful  you  helped  me  along  to  that  extent."  He  scowled 
as  though  he  had  an  inward  pain. 

You  see  this  yard  man  is  on  the  wrong  track  entirely. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  customers  who  had  been  given  low 
prices  had  gone  elsewhere  for  their  next  bills,  or  that  neigh- 
bors whose  business  he  thought  he  was  entitled  to  had 
shipped  in  lumber  from  the  poachers  who  make  so  many  of 
our  yard  men  swear.  But  all  the  same  he  is  on  the  wrong 
track.  He  has  offered  his  lumber  for  sale,  and  in  return 
for  it  every  dollar  which  has  been  paid  to  him  was  a  thanks. 
These  dollars  have  enabled  him  to  live  in  his  own  house 
and  own  his  yard  and  stock.  For  these  things  he  should 
be  extremely  thankful.  I  can't  snuggle  up  to  the  everlast- 
ing grumbler.  There  is  only  one  way  for  us  to  get  along 
as  we  should,  and  that  is  to  make  the  most  of  humanity  as 
we  find  it.  The  most  of  us  are  busy  and  have  no  time  to 
wak  for  people  to  come  around  and  thank  us.  Whenever  we 
do  our  duty  it  matters  not  whether  the  world  knows  it  or 
not.  This  doing  of  our  duty  inures  to  our  character,  and 
thus  makes  better  men  of  us.  Then,  again,  we  are  all  so 
selfish  that  we  expect  more  thanks  and  the  like  than  we  are 
entitled  to.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  injunction,  love  thy 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  165 

neighbor  as  thyself,  is  a  useless  one  except  that  it  is  an  ideal 
for  us  to  reach  after.  Practically  it  never  works. 

Now,  I  have  one  of  the  best  neighbors  in  the  world.  I 
believe  there  is  no  man  who  means  to  be  more  upright  than 
he.  The  entire  community  respects  him.  He  comes  over 
and  smokes  with  me,  and  I  return  the  visit  and  chew  a  cigar 
with  him.  Last  fall  one  of  those  miserable  pocket  gophers 
got  into  his  flower  garden,  and  in  polite  language  raised 
hades.  Finally,  the  gopher  worked  through  into  my  lot, 
and  I  have  no  doubt  but  my  neighbor  was  glad  to  see  him 
off  his  premises.  The  other  day  I  counted  seventy  little 
hillocks  that  the  pest  had  made  in  the  lot  where  my  old 
black  cow  runs,  and  if  tomorrow  morning  I  should  see  he 
had  left  my  field  and  gone  back  on  my  neighbor's  I  should 
be  thankful,  in  a  secret  way  of  course,  that  I  was  rid  of  him. 
I  don't  care  how  ethereal  you  are,  or  if  your  bump  of  love 
has  become  so  enlarged  that  you  can't  wear  your  hat,  you 
would  rather  that  sickness  would  come  to  a  neighbor's  child 
than  to  your  own.  You  would  rather  the  sheriff  would  take 
your  neighbor's  key  than  your's.  If  death  were  to  visit  your 
community  tonight  you  would  a  thousand  times  rather  the 
crape  would  hang  on  some  other  door  than  yours.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  screw  our  love  to  the  pitch  of  loving 
our  neighbors  as  we  love  ourselves.  The  first  law  is  self 
protection,  and  in  the  make-up  of  that  law  selfishness  cuts 
a  big  figure.  Hence  we  should  understand  that  people  con- 
sider us  from  their  standpoint,  and  not  from  ours. 

I  was  so  relieved  when  I  got  out  of  this  yard  man's 
office  that  I  didn't  know  how  to  kick  up  my  heels  high 
enough.  There  were  the  pure  bright  air,  sunshine,  beauti- 
ful grass  and  trees,  singing  birds — enough  to  cause  a  sane 
man  to  shout  praises  to  God  because  he  existed. 


i66  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

POINTS  ON  COLLECTING. 

A  man  came  in  and  called  for  his  bill.  As  the  items 
were  read  to  him  evidently  he  was  not  satisfied.  He  hitched 
in  his  chair  and  drew  long  breaths.  While  he  did  not 
permit  his  feelings  to  explode,  he  went  so  far  as  to  remark 
that  he  would  have  no  more  to  do  with  that  firm  for 
awhile.  This  man's  account  had  been  running  for  three 
years,  with  a  credit  now  and  then,  and  the  point  with  him 
was  that  the  balance  was  larger  than  it  should  be.  The 
yard  man  went  over  the  coal  items  and  showed  him  that 
his  coal  for  the  three  years  had  cost  him  seventy  odd  dollars, 
which  the  man  admitted  was  as  reasonable  as  he  could 
expect.  In  addition  there  was  a  small  bill  for  dimension, 
and  possibly  another  item  or  two.  It  was  the  same  old 
story  of  human  nature ;  nine  men  in  ten  when  they  let  a  bill 
run  and  run  will  think  that  it  is  too  much  when  settling 
day  comes.  I  have  been  caught  in  that  fix  myself. 

.  The  customer  said  "good  day"  pleasantly  enough  when 
he  went  away,  and  then  the  yard  man  said  that  the  day 
before  when  running  over  his  accounts  he  had  made  the 
remark  that  he  wouldn't  give  ten  cents  for  the  one  just 
paid.  He  could  not  understand,  however,  why  the  man 
should  be  at  sea  as  to  the  amount  he  owed.  "He  has  fiad 
several  bills,"  he  said,  "and  why  didn't  he  keep  them?"  Then 
it  occurred  to  me  why  it  would  not  be  a  good  idea  to  have 
printed  in  bold  type  at  the  top  of  the  blanks  on  which  item- 
ized statements  are  rendered,  "Keep  this !"  If  the  instruc- 
tions were  followed  it  would  help  the  customer  to  sustain 
his  equilibrium.  Then  if  he  would  preserve  his  receipts  he 
could  tell  in  five  minutes  how  he  stood  and  ask  no  odds 
of  the  books  of  the  man  he  owed.  But  mighty  little  business 
is  there  in  the  average  man,  and  the  bill  or  statement  gets 
away  from  him  as  though  that  is  what  it  was  for.  Then 
there  are  more  people  in  every  community  than  you  can 
count  on  your  fingers  who,  if  they  can  only  get  credit, 
don't  care  if  the  bills  and  statements  do  get  away  from 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  167 

them.  It  is  not  the  bills  and  statements  but  the  credit 
that  counts  with  them.  Undoubtedly  your  ledger  contains 
the  names  of  several  such  people. 

Then  the  yard  man  delivered  himself  of  a  little  lore 
that  was  worth  recording.  "I  have  been  sending  two  duns 
a  week  to  this  man,"  he  said,  "but  they  did  not  include  the 
amount  of  his  bill.  That  might  have  discouraged  him! 
I  never  tell  a  man  who  is  doubtful  pay  how  much  his 
account  is  when  I  send  him  a  dunning  letter.  I  say  to 
him  that  I  am  hard  up  and  want  some  money,  and  then  if 
he  comes  in  and  has  as  much  as  he  owes  me  I  generally  get 
it."  You  see  this  method  is  based  on  the  principle  we  have 
been  talking  about,  namely,  that  the  average  man  who  has 
a  running  account  underestimates  the  amount  he  owes. 

A  yard  man  once  gave  a  little  talk  on  the  statement  busi- 
ness. "Fll  be  hanged,"  he  said,  "if  I  think  it  is  my  duty 
to  fire  a  string  of  statements  at  a  man,  and  I  don't  do  it 
unless  he  is  the  kind  that  has  to  be  coaxed  in  order  to 
get  a  dollar  out  of  him.  I  have  taught  more  than  one 
man  that  when  I  ask  him  by  mail  for  my  money  he  must 
pay  the  same  attention  to  it  as  he  would  if  I  were  to  go 
to  his  house  and  ask  him.  To  ignore  statements  is  an 
easy  way  that  many  people  who  are  perfectly  able  to  pay 
have  of  staving  off  pay  day.  It  seems  to  be  part  of  their 
religion  to  throw  statements  one  after  another  into  the 
stove  as  fast  as  they  receive  them.  I  sold  a  bill  of  repair 
stuff  to  a  lawyer,  and  at  the  encl  of  sixty  days  sent  him  a 
statement.  Two  weeks  after  I  met  him  on  the  street  and 
told  him  I  had  a  bill  I  wanted  to  put  in  his  hands  to  collect, 
and  pulled  out  his  own.  Ten  percent  for  collection  fees !' 
he  jokingly  remarked.  Then  he  said  he  would  have  paid 
it  before  if  he  had  known  I  was  in  a  hurry  for  it.  I  asked 
him  if  he  didn't  receive  a  statement  and  he  said  he  believed 
he  did.  I  asked  him  if  he  didn't  think  it  was  a  man's  duty 
to  pay  attention  to  those  things?  'You  are  right,'  he  said, 
'it's  a  man's  duty  to  do  it' ;  and  pulled  out  and  paid  me.  I 
have  sued  a  man  after  sending  him  only  one  statement.  If 


168  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

on  receiving  a  statement  a  man  cannot  pay  a  bill,  let  him 
come  around  and  say  so!" 

This  man  stood  on  tenable  ground,  at  least  theoretically, 
but  there  is  not  one  business  man  in  a  thousand  who  has 
the  backbone  to  take  that  stand. 


THE  ART  OF  BUYING  RIGHT. 

The  old  saying  that  a  man  is  a  good  deal  of  a  fellow 
who  makes  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  formerly  there 
was  only  one  holds  equally  true  when  two  profits  can  be 
secured  where  there  was  but  one  before.  The  idea  of  clip- 
ping the  corners  so  that  the  profits  may  be  increased  is  a 
legitimate  one.  To  buy  lumber  worth  the  money,  to  handle 
it  cheaply,  should  be  the  aspiration  of  every  yard  man.  He 
doesn't  feel  good  when  his  stock  of  lumber  is  on  top  of  him 
instead  of  he  on  top  of  the  lumber.  Said  a  yard  man  to  me. 
a  few  months  ago  when  the  white  pine  list  was  supposed 
to  be  as  stiff  as  a  crowbar,  "I  know  there  are  many  dealers 
who  are  paying  list  prices,  but  you  have  no  idea  what  a  con- 
solation it  is  to  me  to  get  under  the  published  prices  half 
a  dollar." 

I  have  never  thought  that  the  poor  buyer  stands  much 
of  a  chance  in  the  mercantile  world  anyhow.  I  could  name 
several  towns  in  which  there  are  good  buyers  and  buyers 
who  are  not  so  good,  doing  business  side  by  side,  and  it  is 
the  latter  who  have  the  nightmare.  Not  long  ago  a  sales- 
man was  deploring  the  position  taken  by  a  certain  yard 
man.  "He  is  a  hades  of  a  haggler  over  prices,"  said  he. 
"He  never  thinks  that  a  price  list  was  made  for  practical 
use." 

I  felt  like  throwing  up  my  hat  for  that  yard  man.  Had 
I  wanted  a  yard  manager  I  am  not  sure  but  I  should  have 
opened  negotiations  with  him.  It  is  of  course  a  nice  thing 
for  a  salesman  to  make  his  towns  and  take  orders  as  fast 
as  he  can  book  them  at  his  own  prices.  I  say  it  is  a  nice 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  169 

thing — that  is  a  nice  thing  for  him.  But  it  is  not  invariably 
a  nice  thing  for  the  other  fellow.  I  like  the  yard  man  who 
at  any  time  stands  ready  to  break  away  from  the  idea  that 
price  lists  are  made  for  practical  use,  and  I  suppose  if  I 
were  put  under  oath  I  could  name  dealers  who  do  not 
once  in  a  hundred  times  pay  list  prices.  And  so  long  as 
they  can  manage  to  get  under  the  prices  of  the  list  don't 
you  think  they  would  be  24-carat  chumps  to  change  their 
method  of  buying  and  pay  list  prices  simply  because  it 
would  please  somebody  for  them  to  do  so  ? 

There  are  salesmen  who  take  a  common  sense  view 
of  this  question.  I  asked  one  of  them  if  he  felt  like  turning 
on  a  yard  man  and  biting  him  if  that  yard  man  were  dis- 
posed to  jew  him  on  prices?  "Not  a  bit  of  it,"  was  the 
reply.  "I  am  going  to  buy  the  few  goods  I  consume  as 
cheaply  as  I  can,  and  I  accord  that  right  to  others.  I 
respect  the  yard  man  who  is  onto  the  situation ;  who  knows 
what  lumber  is  worth  and  will  pay  what  it  is  worth  and  no 
more,  but  he  doesn't  hurt  my  feelings  if  he  tries  to  score 
me  below  the  true  value  level.  I  am  not  obliged  to  sell  him 
at  his  own  figures,  and  need  spend  no  time  listening  to  him 
unless  I  am  so  disposed.  I  know  there  are  dealers  who, 
when  they  are  in  the  mood,  will  give  an  unusually  large 
order  if  they  can  get  a  little  concession,  and  I  think  it  is 
my  business  to  get  that  order  instead  of  leaving  it  for  the 
chap  who  follows  me  to  pick  up.  Yes,  I  sometimes  take 
an  order  with  the  understanding  that  it  shall  be  optional 
with  the  house  to  fill  it.  There  are  men  on  the  road  who 
object  to  this ;  they  have  a  good  deal  of  pride  and  want  to 
be  considered  the  whole  push,  and  the  end  of  things  so 
far  as  bargaining  is  concerned.  I  am  content,  however,  to 
be  a  sort  of  plastic  medium  between  my  house  and  the 
buyer.  If  my  instructions  are  to  sell  at  the  list  I  do  it ; 
still,  I  think  every  salesman  should  use  a  little  common 
sense  in  this  regard,  and  in  order  to  be  able  to  do  this  he 
must  be  posted  on  the  condition  of  stocks.  Once  within 
the  past  six,  months  I  went  out  with  instructions  to  sell 


i;o  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

at  the  list,  and  in  less  than  three  days  I  ran  up  against  a 
man  who  wanted  a  considerable  bill  of  an  item  that  I  knew 
wasn't  the  strongest  in  the  market.  The  buyer  knew  it,  too. 
He  made  a  bid,  and  while  I  was  not  at  liberty  to  accept  it 
I  told  him  I  would  write  the  boss,  which  I  did,  and  later  the 
boss  told  me  he  was  glad  to  place  the  lumber  at  the  price 
obtained.  I  don't  care  how  stiff  a  list  is  there  are  certain 
items  on  it  which  can  be  bent  a  little." 

I  do  not  want  you  to  understand,  however,  that  it  is 
your  duty  to  take  these  opinions,  or  any  other  presented  in 
this  department,  as  law  and  gospel. 


INCREASING  PROFITS  BY  GLAZING. 

The  train  was  tearing  across  the  prairies  like  all  pos- 
sessed, and  a  couple  of  lumbermen  and  myself  were  dis- 
cussing those  momentous  questions,  as  they  say  in  a  debating 
society,  which  affect  the  retail  trade.  By  an  unusual  coinci- 
dence both  of  these  lumbermen  were  thinking  of  doing  their 
own  glazing.  They  had  not  gotten  the  matter  definitely  set- 
tled but  they  were  turning  it  over  in  their  minds,  and  one 
of  them  said  if  he  went  into  it  he  should  expect  to  make  an 
extra  30  percent.  I  don't  think  these  lumbermen  knew  all 
about  buying  glass,  and  I  know  I  don't.  There  is  a  glass 
trust  the  methods  of  which  in  dealing  with  the  buying  pub- 
lic are  not  so  clear  to  the  average  citizen  as  is  the  glass.  This 
trust  calls  certain  dealers  qualified  buyers,  and  others  have 
to  pay  higher  prices,  if  they  get  the  glass  at  all.  There  are 
independent  glass  manufacturers,  however,  who  regard  it 
as  their  business  to  sell  glass,  and  if  you  or  I  want  a  car- 
load we  can  have  it  if  we  can  pay  for  it. 

Some  of  you  may  want  to  consider  this  glazing  proposi- 
tion. The  men  who  talked  it  over  with  me  are  successful 
lumbermen  who  are  not  in  the  habit  of  calling  pigs  big  hogs. 
They  saw  a  point  in  it  else  they  would  have  let  it  alone. 
No  doubt  you  think  you  know  enough  to  glaze  sash — we  all 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  171 

do?  I  feel  confident  that  right  from  the  start,  by  working 
industriously,  I  could  glaze  two  or  three  sash  a  day.  When 
in  a  sash  and  door  factory  recently  I  timed  a  Swede  who 
was  glazing,  and  he  spread  the  putty  at  the  rate  of  22  feet 
a  minute.  He  went  over  the  sash  like  a  jack  rabbit.  He 
had  been  practicing,  though,  for  eleven  years,  and  ought 
by  this  time  to  know  how  to  do  it.  There  would  be  this 
favorable  feature:  You  would  probably  not  have  to  hire 
an  extra  hand  to  do  your  glazing.  You  and  your  hired  man 
could  do  it  at  odd  spells,  and  no  doubt  he  would  like  some 
such  little  thing  to  turn  his  attention  to  so  that  he  could  put 
in  full  time.  I  remember  I  did  when  I  was  a  hired  man. 
Then,  very  likely,  there  may  be  some  kid  around  your  place 
who,  owing  to  his  quick  perception  and  nimble  fingers, 
would  take  the  putty  knife  and  make  both  you  and  your 
hired  man  feel  ashamed  of  yourselves.  It  is  the  kind  of 
work  that  would  suit  a  kid,  for  a  few  minutes  at  any  rate. 

One  of  these  men  complained  that  much  of  the  putty 
used  at  the  sash  and  door  factories  sticks  fully  as  fast  as 
would  first  class  mud.  He  was  of  the  opinion  it  was  some 
kind  of  mud.  If  he  went  into  the  business  he  would 
use  putty  that  was  putty ;  that  old  kind,  you  remember,  that 
when  we  were  boys  we  couldn't  dig  from  a  sash  without 
taking  the  edge  off  our  jackknife.  We  would  have  to 
whittle  it  off,  and  sometimes  the  knife  would  go  astray  and 
the  sash  would  get  slashed.  That  is  not  the  kind  of  putty, 
however,  that  everybody  uses  these  days. 


KODAK  AS  A  TRADE  WINNER. 

The  yard  man  was  as  wideawake  as  a  trout.  He  is  also 
young,  and  it  is  surprising  how  smart  young  men  are  these 
days.  There  has  been  a  hot  time  in  the  old  town  in  which 
this  dealer  is  located,  and  it  is  these  hot  times  which  bring 
out  what  there  is  in  a  man.  Strange  as  it  may  sound  to 
some,  I  know  dealers  who  through  a  prolonged  scrap  have 


172  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

made  money.  The  competition  nerved  them  to  their  best, 
and  in  order  to  hold  their  own  they  devised  methods  and 
schemes  which  otherwise  would  have  laid  latent,  and  which 
put  them  clear  on  top. 

This  yard  man  is  a  photographer — one  of  those  amateur 
photographers  against  whom  so  much  bile  is  directed.  We 
not  infrequently  see  little  pieces  in  the  papers  aimed  at  the 
several  million  of  men  and  women  who  carry  their  cameras 
around  with  them  as  regularly  as  they  do  their  years.  N-ot 
long  ago  some  chump  of  a  writer  remarked  that  amateur 
photographers  "do  not  know  what  good  manners  are."  I'll 
bet  $4  the  man  who  wrote  that  has  nothing  so  unique  or 
beautiful  that  anyone  would  want  a  snap  at  it.  He  is  some 
sour,  jealous,  two-legged  old  crab  who  is  going  backward 
through  the  world.  My  earthly  possessions  are  incomputable 
— not  in  dollars,  however,  but  if  anybody  wants  to  snap  on 
my  old  black  cow,  Gordon  setter,  chickens,  or  even  myself, 
he  is  at  liberty  to  do  so.  These  photogrpahers  derive  pleasure 
from  us  without  it  costing  us  a  cent,  and  any  man  who  would 
object  to  that  kind  of  deal  will  never  be  my  bedfellow  if  I 
can  help  it. 

When  things  were  so  hot  in  this  yard  man's  town  that 
they  boiled  this  dealer  set  to  thinking  and,  without  desiring 
to  stir  up  any  feeling,  let  me  here  remark  that  thinking  is 
an  act  to  which  not  many  of  us  can  plead  guilty.  We  per- 
mit others  to  do  our  thinking  for  us  and  then  rebel  because 
our  lot  is  so  hard,  or  because  we  are  so  mixed  up  with  mist 
and  fog  that  we  cannot  see  our  way.  We  remain  nonentities, 
when  if  we  would  only  let  ourselves  out — be  ourselves,  act 
ourselves — we  would  soar  as  on  the  wings  of  an  eagle.  What 
excuse  do  you  think  we  can  make  when  called  upon  to 
account  for  the  talents  which  were  given  us — :those  poor 
talents,  pinched  and  cramped  to  suit  the  notion  or  pocket- 
book  of  some  man,  party  or  sect  ? 

This  is  the  use  this  man  made  of  his  little  camera:  When 
he  would  get  an  inkling  of  somebody  who  was  going  to 
build,  of  a  Sunday  away  he  and  his. wife  would  drive  to  the 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  173 

place,  visit  with  the  people  a  little,  as  folks  of  tact  can  do. 
take  a  snap  shot  of  the  old  home  and  in  due  time  present 
some  finished  pictures  to  the  prospective  builder.  You  see 
this  little  attention  went  right  to  the  spot.  He  says  by  this 
simple  means  he  sold  a  half  dozen  house  bills.  Then,  to 
make  good  a  promise,  when  the  new  house  was  up  he  would 
take  a  picture  of  that  also,  and  the  pictures  of  the  old  and 
the  new  hanging  side  by  side  were  regarded  as  household 
treasures. 

The  same  yard  man  told  me  another  that  is  not  bad. 
One  evening  when  -the  mercury  was  several  points  below 
zero  he  bundled  up  in  his  fur  overcoat  and  robes  and  drove 
eleven  miles  to  see  a  man  who  was  going  to  build.  He 
reined  up  in  front  of  the  house  and  was  told  to  come  in,  but 
to  go  in  was  not  on  the  program.  So  Mr.  So-and-so,  scant- 
ily dressed  for  that  temperature,  came  out,  and  the  yard  man 
began  to  talk  lumber  to  him.  The  farmer  shifted  his  posi- 
tion from  one  foot  to  the  other,  drew  his  head  down  like  a 
mudturtle  to  get  away  from  the  blast  and  then  he  began 
to  shiver.  All  the  time  the  yard  man  was  describing  to  him 
the  advantages  which  would  arise  from  buying  his  lumber 
from  him,  and  at  length  the  farmer  saw  the  point,  and  the 
bargain  was  closed.  "He  had  to  buy  the  bill  or  freeze  to 
death!''  said  the  yard  man. 

Here  is  another  on  the  same  man:  "Things  were  so 
hot,"  he  said,  "that  when  we  saw  a  man  coming  into  town 
who  looked  as  though  he  might  buy  lumber  we  would  board 
his  wagon  and  talk  lumber  to  him  while  he  was  driving  to 
his  point  of  destination.  One  day  a  farmer  hitched  his  team 
in  front  of  my  place  and  bargained  for  some  stuff.  Then 
he  went  out,  and  being  afraid  that  my  competitor  would 
get  hold  of  him  and  induce  him  to  change  his  mind  we 
unhitched  his  horses,  ran  his  wagon  into  the  yard  and  loaded 
it  up.  Sure  enough,  back  he  came  and  said  he  had  changed 
his  mind  about  taking  that  lumber.  I  pointed  out  to  him 
the  lumber  already  on  the  wagon,  told  him  it  was  ready  for 
him  to  start  with,  then  he  went  back  and  I  suppose  told 


174  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

the  other  fellow  he  had  changed  his  mind.  At  any  rate  he 
hauled  the  lumber  we  had  loaded  on  his  wagon  away  with 
him." 


SIDE  LINES. 

There  is  no  law  to  compel  a  yard  man  from  dealing  in 
other  merchandise  than  lumber  and  coal.  If  he  thinks  he 
can  make  a  few  honest  dollars  outside  of  these  lines  the  way 
is  open  to  him.  There  are  dealers,  however,  who  do  not 
consider  it  "proper  form,"  as  society  people  say,  to  do  so. 
They  stick  to  lumber  and  eschew  all  else.  It  has  seemed 
singular  to  me  that  retail  lumbermen  do  not  pay  more  atten- 
tion to  builders'  hardware.  It  dovetails  with  lumber  nicely. 
A  little  department  of  it  often  pays  a  profit  on  the  invest- 
ment that  is  surprising. 

I  was  in  an  office  when  a  man  bought  a  screen  door,  and 
of  course  he  wanted  hinges  to  go  with  it.  There  are  two 
ways  of  selling  a  screen  door,  one,  when  competition  is  hot, 
to  sell  the  hinges  separately,  and  the  other,  when  more  is 
got  for  the  door,  to  throw  in  the  hinges.  The  yard  man 
went  from  the  office  into  an  adjoining  room,  reached  to  the 
top  of  some  sort  of  cupboard  and  took  down  the  packages 
of  hinges.  Permit  rne  to  be  so  bold  as  to  say  that  is  not  the 
way  to  keep  hardware.  It  looks  too  much  like  "boot-leg- 
ging," as  we  call  it  in  Iowa  when  a  fellow  sells  whisky 
unlicensed  and  on  the  sly.  It  looked  as  though  the  yard 
man  wanted  no  one  to  know  he  was  dealing  in  hardware. 

In  another  office  there  were  shelves  with  sliding  glass 
doors  in  front  of  them,  and  on  these  shelves  were  kept  some 
of  the  common  articles  in  hardware.  That  looked  like 
something.  The  little  stock  was  neat  and  clean,  and  was 
nicely  arranged.  At  one  place,  when  talking  on  the  subject 
of  hardware,  the  yard  man  said  he  did  keep  a  few  articles, 
and  took  down  from  a  shelf  a  box  that  would  hold  a  couple 
of  quarts,  and  in  which  was  about  every  kind  of  screw  you 
can  imagine.  They  had  been  mixed  and  remixed,  and  to  get 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


175 


at  any  particular  size  it  was  necessary  to  dump  the  contents 
of  the  box  on  the  table  and  then  pick  out  what  was  wanted. 
In  the  stock  above  referred  to  there  was  nothing  of  this 
kind.  On  the  end  of  each  box  there  was  wired  a  sample 
of  the  screw  the  box  contained  and  right  through  the  goods 
were  arranged  in  this  systematic  order.  When  we  look  at  our 
offices  or  yards  we  are  looking  into  a  looking  glass  which 
reflects  the  kind  of  heads  we  have,  you  know. 


"Eat  chicken  and  get  acquainted  with  the  girls." 

Paint  is  sold  by  some  dealers,  and  in  certain  instances 
I  know  to  advantage.  In  an  office  there  were  shelves  at  the 
side  of  the  room,  and  on  these  shelves  were  pails  of  pre- 
pared paint.  The  dealer  told  how  much  of  this  paint  he 
had  sold  hi  twelve  months,  the  profit  per  gallon,  and  a 
mental  computation  made  his  income  from  that  source  $100. 
To  be  sure  that  isn't  much,  but  it  is  too  much  to  be  kicked 
out  of  doors  when  it  can  be  kept  inside  by  simply  handling 


176  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

a  small  stock  of  paint.  This  man  says  there  is  no  loss  in 
this  stock.  If  he  gets  a  color  that  is  not  a  seller  it  is 
exchanged  for  one  that  will  sell.  If  the  cans  become  shop 
worn  they  are  shipped  back  and  fresh  cans  returned  to 
replace  them.  To  me  it  looked  like  an  easy  way  to  make 
a  sum  of  money  that  will  chink  in  on  several  occasions.  I 
do  not  remember  seeing  a  dealer  who  sold  white  lead. 
There  is  no  profit  in  it,  and  it  is  probably  better  to  let  it 
alone.  Let  the  druggist  have  the  trade! 

I  know  what  some  of  you  will  say — it  has  been  said  to 
me  several  times — "I  don't  want  to  encroach  upon  the  trade 
of  the  hardware  man !"  If  you  find  consolation  in  that  kind 
of  business  religion  I  should  have  no  desire  to  knock  the  prop 
from  under  you.  If  the  hardware  man  has  a  mortgage  on 
you,  keep  quiet  and  let  the  sparrows  do  the  scrapping.  You 
know  of  course  that  the  hardware  man  will  sell  all  the 
screen  doors  and  windows  he  can,  and  I  wish  somebody 
would  tell  me  why  that  trade  belongs  more  to  him  than 
the  trade  in  nails,  screws  and  hinges  does  to  you.  It  shows 
an  excellent  spirit  to  respect  the  interests  of  others — and 
so  it  does  to  respect  one's  own  interests. 

In  touching  on  this  question  I  have  not  given  my  imag- 
ination long  wings.  The  subject  might  be  so  enlarged  as 
to  include  land,  horses,  cattle,  wheat,  corn,  banks,  hotels, 
stocks,  and  an  occasional  game  of  poker,  all  of  which  are 
looked  after  on  the  side  by  yard  men.  Some  of  them  are 
a  regular  menagerie  when  it  comes  to  doing  business. 

I  recently  went  to  a  church  supper  with  a  yard  man,  ate 
chicken  and  got  acquainted  with  the  girls,  This  man  is  a 
thorough  believer  in  special  lines.  He  says  he  wants  to 
get  people  to  his  place,  and  having  once  done  so  he  thinks 
that  the  right  kind  of  treatment  will  bring  them  there  again. 
It  may  not  be  lumber  they  want  the  first  time,  but  they  will 
want  it  some  time.  He  named  an  article  he  had  been  selling 
which  was  sold  by  no  one  else  in  town,  and  it  had  brought 
new  customers  to  his  place.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  busi- 
ness sense  in  such  a  method.  All  of  you  may  not  take  to  it, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


177 


but  in  my  opinion  some  of  you  might  adopt  it  to  advantage. 
No  doubt  there  are  a  thousand  yard  men  in  the  country  who 
would  say  they  are  not  getting  their  share  of  trade,  and  what 
more  appropriate  than  that  they  should  take  a  lever  of  this 
kind  and  do  something  toward  prying  themselves  out  of  the 
hole. 

A  yard  man  told  me  that  when  he  first  came  to  the  town 
trade  was  so  slow  that  he  took  up  real  estate.  He  saw  that 
the  town  was  bound  to  grow,  so  he  bought  five  acres  on  the 
outskirts,  laid  it  off  into  lots,  and  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
sell  everything.  "It  helped  me  out,"  he  said.  It  is  not 
every  yard  man,  however,  who  can  successfully  balance  on 
his  shoulder  a  lumber  yard  and  a  subdivision,  though  I  have 
known  several  who  have  done  it. 


DEVICE  FOR  HANGING  DOORS. 

A  yard  man  of  ideas  explained  how  he  exhibits  his  front 
doors.  The  accompanying  illustration  will  help  to  make 
it  clear.  He  takes  a  strap  hinge,  clips  the  end  off  so  as  to 
make  it  a  little  broader,  and  then  turns  the  end  up  say  an 


"He  takes  a  strap  hinge." 

inch  and  a  half.  He  takes  old  broomsticks,  saws  them  up 
into  pieces  about  an  inch  and  a  quarter  long,  bores  a  hole 
through  them  lengthwise,  avoiding  the  center,  rivets  or 
screws  these  pieces  to  the  hinges,  and  thus  has  an  eccentric. 
The  butt  of  the  hinge  is  screwed  to  the  wall  or  post,  as  the 
case  may  be,  and  the  task  of  hanging  a  door  consists  simply 


1*8 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


"Hang  his  screen  doors  on  a  post." 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  1*9 

in  placing  the  edge  between  the  turned  up  hinge  and  the 
cam  formed  by  the  piece  of  broom  handle,  and  gravity  does 
the  rest.  Two  of  these  hinges  are  of  course  required  for 
each  door.  If  a  door  is  wanted,  simply  lift  up  on  it  and  it  is 
released.  When  thus  hung  the  doors  can  be  swung  back 
and  forth,  showing  both  sides  of  them,  thus  avoiding  hand- 
ling and  rehandling.  A  hood  about  four  feet  wide  is  built 
over  the  doors  to  keep  off  the  dust.  The  coming  season  this 
yard  man  will  hang  his  screen  doors  on  a  post  and  be  able 
to  show  the  whole  batch  of  them  in  less  than  five  minutes. 
The  device  will  be  so  novel  and  at  the  same  time  so  much  of 
a  plaything  that  customers  will  manipulate  the  doors  them- 
selves and  make  their  selections. 


RUINOUS  WRANGLING. 

There  is  many  a  town  in  which  the  yard  men  have  one 
another  by  the  ears.  Lumbermen  as  a  class  are  rather  posi- 
tive mortals,  anyhow,  and  perhaps  the  wonder  is  that  more 
of  them  do  not  wage  open  war.  The  most  of  us  wage  war 
in  secret,  but  that  is  another  leaf  of  the  story.  If  we  were 
hanged  for  our  secret  sins  the  majority  of  us  would  dangle. 

The  lumber  buying  public  invariably  enjoys  these  scraps. 
If  the  grocers  of  my  town  were  to  get  into  a  fight  and  sell 
tea  and  codfish  at  cost  I  wouldn't  care  if  they  were  cutting 
the  throats  of  one  another  clear  back  to  the  ears.  That 
which  would  interest  me  would  be  the  fact  that  I  could  take 
one  of  the  big  dollars  earned  by  pushing  the  pencil,  go  to 
one  of  these  stores  and  get  more  goods  for  it  than  I  could 
get  at  times  when  the  condition  of  trade  was  normal.  The 
fact  that  one  of  these  grocers  would  sell  me  goods  at  cost 
would  not  increase  my  respect  for  him  one  bit,  either.  I 
should  know  he  was  doing  it  not  because  ho  loved  me  but 
because  he  was  trying  to  knock  the  pins  from  under  his 
competitor  across  the  street.  I  should  be  very  willing  to 
be  used  as  a  medium.  That  is  the  view  lumber  consumers 


i8o  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

take  of  it  when  yard  men  in  a  town  raise  the  battle  cry. 
They  little  care  who  gets  wounded  if  they  can  rake  in  the 
spoils. 

I  have  seen  many  results  of  these  fights  in  the  shape  of 
vacant  offices  and  empty  yards.  In  these  cases  it  was  a  fight 
to  a  finish.  One  of  the  contestants  would  get  that  tired 
feeling  beyond  endurance,  or  fail  financially,  and  get  out 
because  he  wanted  to  badly,  or  was  obliged  to.  There  are 
men  to  whom  I  should  like  to  present  photographs  of  these 
yards  in  ruins,  labeled  "The  Outcome  of  the  Fight!"  It 
might  set  them  to  thinking,  and  it  might  not.  I  have  in 
mind  as  I  write  two  yard  men,  each  of  whom  would  take 
everything  the  other  one  had  except  his  lifeblood  if  he  had 
the  chance,  and  both  say  they  are  there  "to  stay."  I  know  as 
a  rule  there  is  as  much  bluff  as  anything  in  that  expression ; 
still  these  men  have  stayed  for  some  time,  and  so  far  as  I 
know  will  stay  right  along,  continuing  to  tickle  the  people 
in  that  community  who  buy  lumber  and  throwing  away  their 
own  opportunities  to  make  a  success  of  their  business  lives. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  a 
man  should  feel  proud  of  his  staying  qualities. 

I  have  never  come  in  contact  with  a  lumberman  who 
was  doing  the  knock-down  and  get-knocked-down  act  who 
did  not  express  a  regret  that  things  were  as  they  were.  If 
the  "other  fellow"  were  only  out  of  the  way  he  would  settle 
down  to  quiet  business  again  and  live  and  let  live  once  more. 
It  wouldn't  do  in  these  cases,  however,  for  the  competitors 
to  come  together,  acknowledge  how  foolish  they  had  been, 
each  forgive  and  forget  a  little,  shake  hands  and  call  the 
thing  off.  I  say  it  wouldn't  do — it  would  be  too  easy.  It 
would  look  too  much  like  baiting  that  selfish  nature  of  ours 
with  sugar  instead  of  keeping  it  stirred  up  with  acid. 

I  was  in  a  town  in  which  there  is  rather  warm  compe- 
tition, and  one  of  the  dealers  when  discussing  the  situation 
said  he  did  not  suppose  things  would  be  otherwise  until  either 
he  or  his  neighbor  quit  or  died.  "I  claim  to  have  learned  my 
business,"  said  he.  "Every  week  I  outbuy  him ;  I  can  sort 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  181 

my  stock  to  better  advantage  than  he  can,  and  as  a  result  I 
can  undersell  him.  What  is  there  unfair  in  that?"  In  my 
opinion  a  business  man's  knowledge  is  his  tools  of  trade, 
and  he  is  foolish  if  he  doesn't  make  use  of  them.  Because 
I  wouldn't  agree  on  his  kind  of  prices  he  went  to  cavorting. 
The  fact  is  the  prices  I  am  getting  give  me  as  much  profit 
as  the  prices  he  wanted  would  have  given  him." 


THE  KIND  OF  LETTER  TO  WRITE. 

I  have  seen  wholesale  men  as  mad  as  blazes  about  the 
letters  received  from  their  customers.  The  orders  of  those 
customers  were  not  filled  exactly  to  suit  them,  and  their 
inclination  was  to  give  it  to  the  men  of  whom  they  had 
bought.  So  they  would  sit  down  and  proceed  to  give  it 
to  them !  This  giving  it  to  them  ought  to  be  a  last  resort, 
beloved.  Catch  men  with  sugar  just  as  you  would  flies — 
that  is  the  idea.  Try  the  diplomacy  of  gentle  and  respectful 
speech  first.  If  this  fails  entirely  and  you  become  dead  sure 
that  the  man,  according  to  the  choice  language  of  Mr. 
Greeley,  is  a  liar  and  a  horsethief,  why,  then,  squirt  acid  into 
his  eyes  until  he  hollers. 

When  sitting  by  the  desk  of  the  manager  of  a  big  sash 
and  door  factory  he  mentioned  a  letter  received  from  a  yard 
man  with  whom,  by  the  way,  I  am  well  acquainted.  This 
yard  man  had  bought  the  mill  work  for  a  fine  house  of  this 
concern  with  the  understanding  that  it  should  go  forward 
in  one  shipment.  In  this  regard,  however,  the  yard  man 
had  changed  his  mind  and  asked  that  it  be  forwarded  in 
three  installments.  "It  will  cost  us  more  money  to  do  that," 
said  the  manager,  "but  the  tone  of  the  man's  letter  was  such 
that  if  necessary  I  would  take  off  my  coat  and  go  out  and 
help  load  the  stuff  into  different  cars."  There  you  see 
comes  in  the  reward  of  a  decent,  gentlemanly  letter. 

In  more  business  places  than  we  could  count  it  is  thought 
that  any  three-dollar-a-week  man  who  can  swing  a  stub  pen 


182  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

and  dovetail  English  words  together  is  good  enough  to  write 
business  letters.  It  is  a  delusion,  however,  and  oftentimes 
a  snare  that  catches  around  the  neck  and  shuts  the  wind  off. 

First  and  last,  the  wholesale  men  tell  me  several  things, 
and  two  or  three  months  ago  one  of  them  pulled  out  a  batch 
of  letters  from  yard  men  and  laid  them  before  me  to  read. 
I  wanted  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  a  certain  matter,  and  this 
man  was  so  kind  as  to  assist  me.  I  received  the  information 
I  wanted ;  and  all  the  time  I  had  an  eye  on  the  character 
of  the  letters.  Some  of  them  were  grouty.  A  few  of  them 
were  documents  of  complaint  because  lumber  had  advanced. 
Others  were  sincere  and  frank,  put  into  such  language  as 
one  gentleman  would  use  to  another  face  to  face.  Every 
letter  was  a  portrayal  of  the  character  of  the  man  ,who 
wrote  it. 

If  I  were  running  a  business  it  seems  to  me  I  should  be 
very  particular  about  the  letters  which  were  sent  out.  I 
should  want  the  man  who  wrote  them  to  bring  out  the  sugar 
bowl  and  oil  can  and  leave  the  pepper  box  in  the  pantry. 

Business  is  business,  and  a  man  should  say  what  he 
means,  I  have  heard  it  said.  That  is  right,  too;  a  man 
should  always  say  what  he  means,  but  there  are  a  hundred 
and  one  ways  of  saying  what  he  means. 


CONCERNING  MINOR  THINGS. 

Come  to  look  at  that  heading  I  don't  like  it,  for  I  cannot 
swear  thef'e  are  any  minor  things.  I  used  to  think  there 
were.  I  used  to  think  there  were  people  who  were  very 
minor  when  compared  to  myself ;  then  I  thought  there  were 
many  others  to  whom  I  dare  not  lift  my  eyes,  they  were  so 
refulgent  with  greatness.  I  am  thankful  I  am  out  of  this 
rut  of  thinking.  In  my  opinion  there  isn't  a  human  being 
on  the  earth  who  does  not  in  the  great  plan  cut  as  much  of  a 
figure  as  I  do.  I  feel  that  others  are  as  important  as  1  am, 
and  I  as  important  as  they.  Simply  because  our  governor 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  183 

was  a  politician  and  successfully  pulled  the  wires,  I  do  not 
rank  him  above  that  man  across  the  street  who  is  laboriously 
shaping  stone  for  the  foundation  for  a  house.  The  standard 
is  when  a  man  is  doing  his  best. 

The  Almighty  has  made  no  minor  things.  The  grain 
of  sand  is  as  perfect  as  the  rock.  The  elephant,  by  those 
who  are  unfamiliar  with  him,  is  called  a  wonderful  animal, 
simply  because  he  is  big.  The  other  day  I  saw  a  little  black- 
speck  on  my  hand.  The  natural  eye  could  detect  nothing 
farther  except  that  the  speck  moved.  I  placed  it  under  the 
microscope,  and  there  was  shown  an  insect  with  legs,  eyes, 
digestive  apparatus,  and  anatomical  projections  as  surprising 
as  the  elephant's  trunk.  Call  the  elephant  more  wonderful 
than  this  insect?  Not  a  whit.  If  you  say  the  elephant  is 
wonderful  for  his  great  size,  I  would  retort  that  this  insect 
is  equally  wonderful  for  its  minuteness.  Oh,  but  if  we 
could  only  quit  sitting  in  judgment  on  the  works  of  the 
Creator. 

In  an  office  in  which  I  was  sitting  one  partner  was  about 
to  make  an  inquiry  of  a  southern  house  as  to  the  price  of 
yellow  pine  flooring,  when  the  other  partner  said :  "Tell 
'em  we  want  flat  back.'' 

"Why  flat  back  ?"  I  made  bold  to  ask. 

"It  looks  thicker  than  the  grooved  back  and  sells  better," 
was  the  reply.  You  see,  it  was  the  minor  matter  of  a  little 
extra  thickness  the  yard  man  was  thinking  about. 

Thick  material  is  a  consideration  with  thousands  of 
lumber  buyers.  A  yard  man  told  me  that  to  certain  custom- 
ers he  was  unable  to  sell  surfaced  dimension,  for  the  reason 
that  in  the  process  of  surfacing  some  of  the  wood  is  cut 
away.  In  some  of  the  eastern  markets  they  have  been 
sticklers  for  plump  thicknesses.  If  they  bargained  for  inch 
lumber  they  were  going  to  have  it  an  inch  thick.  They  said  : 
"You  can't  sell  us  inch  lumber  and  put  off  three-quarters  on 
us  any  more  than  you  can  sell  us  a  pound  of  corn  and  de- 
liver us  twelve  ounces." 

There  were  western  saw  mill  men  who  tried  to  find  a 


184  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

market  in  the  east,  and  whose  stuff  was  thrown  back  on 
their  hands.  "But  this  stuff  is  accepted  in  the  western 
markets,"  these  saw  mill  men  urged. 

'To  blazes  with  your  western  markets,"  they  said,  "we 
are  in  the  east !" 

The  sawing  of  scant  thicknesses  in  the  west  was  first 
practiced  as  a  saving  grace  in  the  freight  line ;  and  then  we 
western  chaps  are  so  happy-go-lucky  that  we  don't  kick 
much  provided  a  board  is  only  thick  enough  to  stop  a  hog 
in  its  wild  flight.  I  suppose,  however,  that  a  just  judge  or 
jury  would  say  the  eastern  people  are  correct  in  the  position 
they  take. 

"It  is  surprising  how  certain  terms  when  skilfully  used 
by  a  salesman  will  help  things  along,"  said  another  yard 
man.  "I  sold  a  bill  to  a  particular  farmer  out  here  three 
miles.  I  showed  him  my  stock  and  he  walked  around  seem- 
ingly indifferent  until  I  pointed  to  a  pile  of  boards  and 
remarked  that  there  was  some  good,  wide  stock.  I  could 
see  it  appealed  to  him.  The  boards  were  really  wide,  and 
the  old  fellow  seemed  to  think  that  the  width  was  a  sign  of 
superiority.  The  fact  was  that  for  the  purpose  for  which 
the  lumber  was  to  be  used  it  would  not  amount  to  the  snap 
of  a  finger  to  the  farmer  whether  the  boards  were  nine  or 
eighteen  inches  wide.  I  believe,  however,  he  would  have 
gone  out  of  my  yard  without  buying  had  it  not  been  for  that 
pile  of  wide  boards." 

Of  a  somewhat  similar  nature  was  the  testimony  of  a 
Minnesota  yard  man  regarding  his  experience  in  selling 
shingles.  He  said  he  did  not  sell  many  5  to  2  for  the  reason 
that  he  could  not  honestly  push  them.  "I  believe  that  a  6 
to  2  is  worth  as  much  to  a  cent,"  he  said.  "  If  I  were  build- 
ing a  whole  city  and  covering  it  with  wood  I  wouldn't  put 
one  5  to  2  shingle  on  the  roof.  At  one  time  last  season  I 
ran  out  of  6  to  2,  and  as  luck  would  have  it,  and  as  it 
generally  does  have  it,  while  I  was  shy  I  had  a  call  for  a 
good  many  shingles,  and  I  didn't  fail  once  to  sell  the  5  to  2. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  185 

I  would  show  the  shingle,  laying  particular  stress  on  the 
thickness,  and  they  would  go." 

If  your  lumber  yard  was  mine  I  wouldn't  want  a  better 
argument  to  fire  at  the  average  buyer  than  that  my  lumber 
was  of  extra  thickness.  To  the  contractors,  and  others  who 
know  their  business,  such  an  argument  would  not  have 
much  weight,  but  the  farmer  would  jump  for  it  as  the  trout 
jumps  for  the  fly. 


TO  PROTECT  THE  EDGES  OF  LOADS. 

The  bungler  is  out  of  place  even  in  the  handling  of  a 
coarse  product  like  lumber.   I  have  seen  more  loads  of  lum- 


"The  best  thing  I  have  seen  for  the  purpose." 

ber  leaving  yards  bound  in  the  most  crude  way  imaginable 
than  I  have  lived  weeks.  Sometimes  a  rope  is  used,  some- 
times a  chain,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  at  such  times  to  hear 
the  wood  crack  when  the  binder  is  tightened,  the  edges  of 
the  boards  on  top  of  the  load  giving  way.  When  the  tongue 
of  a  flooring  or  siding  board  is  in  part  torn  off  or  a  groove 
smashed  in  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  carpenter,  con- 
tractor or  owner,  as*  the  case  may  be,  thinks  he  is  not  get- 
ting value  received.  It  would  be  easy  for  him  to  think 
that  the  man  of  whom  he  bought  the  lumber  was  a  Cheap 
John  who  had  set  up  as  a  lumber  merchant  because  he 
could  do  nothing  else. 


186  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

Any  bungler  can  bind  a  load  of  lumber  by  throwing  a 
rope  or  chain  over  it  and  then  tightening  it,  but  in  this 
crude  method  the  proper  detail  is  lost  sight  of.  In  one  yard 
I  saw  small  sacks  made  of  coarse,  strong  material  and 
stuffed  with  some  other  material,  presumably  cotton,  wool 
or  old  rags,  to  be  placed  on  the  upper  edges  of  the  load  un- 
der the  rope  or  chain  for  the  protection  of  the  lumber.  The 
best  thing  I  have  seen  for  the  purpose,  however,  consists 
of  a  piece  of  heavy  rubber  pipe,  say  six  inches  in  length  and 
two  or  three  inches  in  diameter,  through  which  the  rope  or 
chain  is  passed,  and  of  course  the  common  sense  of  any  of 
us  would  tell  us  that  the  rubber  should  come  between  the 
edges  of  the  load  and  the  rope  or  chain. 


KEEPING  TAB  ON  YARD  HANDS. 

The  yard  man  who  gives  work  to  only  one  man  may 
save  time  by  skipping  this  article,  for  the  suggestion  is  not 
one  that  he  will  have  occasion  to  adopt.  I  asked  the  yard 
man  what  kind  of  a  Chinese  puzzle  it  was  on  his  door  jam 


"Keeping  track  of  the  men." 

and  he  said  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  track  of  his 
men.  As  you  will  see,  there  are  several  little  dies,  three 
inches  in  diameter  perhaps,  the  lower  half  of  each 
painted  black  and  the  upper  half  white.  Screwed  to  the 
centers  of  these  discs  are  sorts  of  tongues  also  painted  black, 
and  which  when  turned  up  would  show  as  a  black  streak 
across  the  white.  Over  the  discs  are  the  numbers,  T,  2,  3,  4, 
corresponding  to  the  number  of  men  employed.  This  is 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  187 

the  machinery  on  the  door  jam.  Hanging  down  through 
the  ceiling,  over  the  desk,  is  a  rope  which  is  connected 
with  a  triangle  on  the  end  of  the  office  outside  which  serves 
as  a  bell.  When  a  man  goes  out  with  a  load  or  for  other 
reason  is  to  be  absent  he  turns  up  the  tongue  on  his  disc, 
and  then  at  a  glance  the  office  man  knows  it  would  be  sense- 
less to  call  for  that  particular  man.  It  is  known  at  all  times 
the  men  who  are  around  the  yard  and  those  who  are  out- 
side. 


IN  FEAR  OF  THE  LINE  YARD  MEN. 

The  president  of  a  retail  association  recently  read  a 
paper  in  which  was  expressed  the  opinion  that  there  would 
soon  be  none  but  line  yards.  This  opinion  I  have  often 
heard  expressed  by  single  yard  men,  and  I  must  confess  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  logic  on  which  it  is  based. 
Of  course,  if  all  the  single  yard  men  choose  to  sell  out  to 
the  line  yard  fellows,  why  then  it  follows  that  the  prophecy 
of  these  single  yard  men  will  have  been  realized. 

The  objection  to  line  yards  often  amounts  to  a  pique. 
If  I  have  a  yard  at  Gun  Town  and  another  one  at  Toad 
Holler  I  am  practically  a  line  yard  man.  So  long  as  I  had 
a  yard  in  Gun  Town  only  I  was  supposed  to  be  a  pretty 
good  fellow,  but  the  minute  I  open  a  yard  in  Toad  Holler 
my  nature  by  some  is  alleged  to  have  undergone  a  change. 
I  have  become  a  raging  monopolist  and  want  to  crowd  all 
my  neighbors  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  If  I  wanted  to  make 
money  at  one  of  these  points  don't  you  think  I  would  want 
to  make  money  at  both  of  them  ?  Do  you  think  that  because 
I  run  two  yards  my  assets  in  this  world's  goods  have  so 
suddenly  increased  that  I  can  do  business  on  a  scale  of  no 
profit  just  for  the  fun  of  the  thing? 

A  single  yard  man  recently  poured  into  my  ear  a  tale 
of  woe  concerning  what  seemed  to  him  the  outlook.  The 
line  yard  man  at  the  next  station  up  the  road  looked  to  him 


i88  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

bigger  than  an  elephant.  I  asked  him  what  was  the  matter 
with  him?  If  he  didn't  respect  his  territory;  if  he  sold 
lumber  ruinously  low  ?  He  could  hardly  formulate  a  charge, 
but  the  "line  yard"  was  a  red  flag  that  goaded  him  to  fury. 

This  I  will  admit — that  the  local  manager  of  a  line  yard 
does  not  always  do  the  square  thing.  He  is  anxious  to  hold 
his  job,  as  the  most  of  us  are  to  hold  jobs,  and  to  make  as 
good  financial  showing  to  his  principal  as  he  can  he  steps 
over  the  bounds.  He  is  not  always  a  man  of  good  judgment. 
I  have  come  in  contact  with  local  managers  of  line  yards 


"Poured  into  my  ear  a  tale  of  woe." 

who  evidently  would  not  grade  above  high  C.  This  is  nec- 
essarily so.  There  is  a  large  number  of  line  yards  in  the 
country,  and  to  secure  thoroughly  capable  managers  for  all 
of  them  would  be  out  of  the  question.  I  have  known  these 
local  men  to  conduct  themselves  in  matters  of  trade  in  a 
way  which  was  not  approved  by  the  proprietor  of  the  line. 
Not  long  ago  something  of  this  kind  came  under  my  observa- 
tion. The  proprietor  at  once  took  the  train  for  the  town 
in  which  the  yard  is  located,  and  I  know  if  he  didn't  read 
his  man  a  hot  tongued  lecture  he  changed  his  mind  before 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  189 

he  got  there.  Line  yard  men  size  up  similarly  to  the  rest  of 
us.  There  are  upright  business  men  who  run  lines  of  yards 
— I  am  personally  acquainted  with  several  such.  On  the 
other  hand  I  could  name  a  line  yard  man  who  no  doubt  is 
meaner  than  any  "pussley,"  as  we  call  it,  that  ever  overran 
your  vegetable  beds.  I  should  not  want  to  do  business 
alongside  of  one  of  his  yards.  He  is  not  mean,  though, 
because  he  is  a  line  yard  man.  He  would  have  been  mean  in 
any  business. 

I  wish  I  could  assure  the  doubting  and  diffident  single 
yard  souls  that  the  best  single  yard  lumber  merchants  of 
the  country  have  no  fear  of  the  line  yards  in  the  least. 
This  has  been  said  before,  and  it  will  bear  repeating.  Those 
merchants  regard  the  line  yard  as  the  softest  possible  snap 
in  the  way  of  a  competitor.  To  start  with,  very  often  there 
is  a  feeling  against  a  line  yard  by  the  people  of  the  town 
in  which  it  is  located.  It  is  not  "a  home  institution,"  they 
say.  This  prejudice  is  at  times  both  senseless  and  un-Amer- 
ican; still  it  exists  and  feeds  the  minds  of  the  unthinking. 
Again,  the  up-to-date  local  lumberman  who  knows  by  heart 
the  people  of  his  section  does  not  stand  in  fear  of  such  com- 
petition as  is  put  up  by  the  average  man  in  charge  of  a  line 
yard.  Go  where  you  may,  and  it  is  ten  to  one  it  is  not  the 
line  yard  that  is  doing  more  than  its  share  of  business.  I 
could  name  those  which  are  hanging  on  by  the  skin  of  their 
teeth  while  their  neighbors  are  prospering. 

As  I  look  at  it  there  is  no  sense  in  talking  about  line 
yards  "crowding"  out  single  yards.  They  may  supplant 
them — I  can't  say  as  to  that — but  if  they  do  it  will  be  because 
they  come  forward  with  cold  money  and  buy  them  out. 
They  have  a  constant  eye  to  that.  No  doubt  the  line  yard 
men  operating  in  Iowa  alone  would  buy  a  hundred  yards 
tomorrow  if  they  could  do  so  on  an  equitable  basis.  They 
are  constantly  in  evidence  as  to  their  faith  in  the  value  and 
stability  of  the  retail  lumber  trade. 

A  dealer  in  a  two-yard  town  was  recently  talking  with 
me  on  the  subject  of  prospective  competition.  You  know 


190  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

there  are  some  towns  which  in  this  regard  are  hung  on  a 
hair  trigger.  You  can  hardly  tell  whether  there  is  room 
for  another  yard  or  not.  This  town  is  one  of  that  kind. 
"It  is  not  the  competition  of  the  line  yard  that  I  care  so 
much  about,"  he  remarked,  "for  the  line  yard  wants  to  make 
money.  But  it  is  the  irresponsible  fly-up-the-creek  fellow 
who  is  liable  to  come,  demand  a  larger  percentage  of  the 
business  than  he  ought  to  have,  and  if  he  can't  get  it  tear 
things  to  pieces  by  raising  hades !" 


MOOD  AS  A  MOTIVE. 

The  yard  man  asked  if  I  felt  that  I  must  be  in  a  certain 
mood  when  I  wrote,  and  I  told  him  that  I  repudiated  moods 
years  ago;  that  a  fellow  who  writes  for  a  living  must  be 
ready  to  go  at  it  any  time  just  as  he  would  if  he  were  dig- 
ging ditches  for  a  living.  The  yard  man  said  he  wished 
he  could  get  into  that  way  of  selling  lumber.  "But  I  have 
not  been  able  to,"  he  continued.  "At  times  when  I  take  a 
man  in  hand  I  feel  almost  absolutely  sure  of  selling  him. 
I  know  I  am  right  in  touch  with  him;  and  it  seems  to  me 
that  he  couldn't  get  away  from  me  if  he  tried.  At  other 
times  it  is  like  standing  on  one  hill  with  my  prospective 
customer  on  another.  There  is  too  much  distance  between 
us.  When  I  feel  that  I  have  my  man  in  hand  the  question 
of  price  hardly  gives  me  a  thought.  I  could  sell  him  at 
almost  any  price,  I  believe,  but  when  it  is  one  of  my  off 
days  I  am  so  mighty  afraid  I  will  accomplish  nothing  that 
the  first  I  know  I  am  offering  some  sort  of  concession.  I 
propose  to  knock  off  a  little  here  and  there  and  go  wriggling 
around  in  a  way  that  it  seems  to  me  would  be  plain  to  any- 
body that  I  was  not  sure  of  my  footing." 

This  yard  man  opened  up  a  big  subject.  All  of  us  have 
less  confidence  and  backbone  at  some  times  than  at  others, 
and  I  don't  believe  it  is  dyspepsia  that  is  the  cause  of  it, 
either.  Dyspepsia  is  bad  enough,  but  it  has  become  such  a 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  191 

stock  term  that  we  apply  it  as  a  cause  for  all  the  minor  ills 
of  the  mind.  If  a  man  is  irritable,  mean,  ungentlemanly,  a 
nice  way  to  excuse  him  is  to  say  he  has  the  dyspepsia.  I 
don't  believe  it  is  any  excuse,  as  any  man  with  a  head  half 
full  of  brains  ought  to  know  enough  to  be  decent  and  treat 
people  at  least  courteously,  no  matter  if  dyspepsia  lies  in 
chunks  in  his  stomach.  When  a  man  who  does  not  feel  up 
to  concert  pitch  physically  blurts  around  and  slobbers  like  a 
catfish,  treading  on  your  feelings  or  mine,  it  is  simply  a  plain 
exhibition  of  the  man  proper.  Get  him  a  little  roiled  and 
he  would  do  the  same  thing  if  he  had  the  pristine  health  of 
Adam. 

Physically  and  mentally  we  are  constantly  relaxing  and 
strengthening — swelling  and  receding.  To  speak  meta- 
phorically, the  tide  comes  in  and  goes  out.  When  it  is  full 
we  have  hope,  confidence,  grit ;  and  when  it  ebbs  those 
qualities  are  less  intense.  It  is  a  natural  process  of  nature, 
and  as  life  depends  on  action  and  reaction  when  the  process 
ceases  we  die. 

It  is  an  excellent  thing  to  set  our  standard  when  the  tide 
is  in — just  as  we  would  make  our  will  when  we  know  what 
we  are  doing.  A  lumberman  recently  told  me  that  some 
of  the  most  serious  mistakes  in  his  earlier  business  life  were 
a  result  of  his  not  having  the  backbone  to  stay  by  his  judg- 
ment. He  would  figure  on  large  bills,  he  said,  knowing  at 
the  time  that  the  proposition  was  an  equitable  one  all  around, 
but  in  a  day  or  two  a  feeling  would  possess  him  that  he 
would  like  to  go  a  few  dollars  better  on  his  own  estimates. 
His  mental  sky  would  assume  a  bluish  cast,  and  he  would 
begin  to  think  that  surely  somebody  would  underbid  him 
and  that  if  he  didn't  sell  that  amount  of  lumber  to  that  one 
particular  man  or  corporation  he  didn't  know  where  he 
would  sell  it.  You  see  the  tide  was  going  out  and  there  was 
a  letting  down  in  his  determination.  Felt  the  same  way 
yourself,  haven't  you? 

We  are  great  creatures — great  machines ;  there  is  more 


192 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


to  us  than  we  will  ever  find  out,  and  to  sell  lumber  success- 
fully it  is  as  necessary  for  us  to  study  ourselves  and  others  as 
it  would  be  if  we  practiced  law  or  dealt  out  pills. 


OPPOSED  TO  RETAIL  ASSOCIATIONS. 

Of  course  there  is  no  law  to  compel  a  dealer  to  join  a 
retail  association  any  more  than  there  is  to  force  him  to 
become  a  member  of  a  church  or  a  club.  If  a  dealer  thinks 
he  can  succeed  better  outside  an  association  there  is  no  one 
to  say  to  him  nay.  I  mingle  with  a  great  many  yard  men 
and  correspond  with  many.  We  discuss  every  phase  of  the 
yard  business,  agree  and  disagree,  but  never  quarrel.  Life 


"A  blow  right  between  the  eyes." 

is  too  short  for  that.  I  don't  think  much  of  the  discipline 
two  men  have  undergone  if  they  can't  discuss  differences 
without  getting  hot  under  the  collar.  This,  however,  I  am 
glad  to  be  able  to  say :  Not  one  dealer  in  fifty  outside  of  the 
association  has  anything  to  say  against  them.  It  is  on  the 
principle,  I  suppose,  that  while  we  love  ourselves  we  know 
we  are  sinners. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  193 

A  letter  came  to  me  today  from  a  yard  man  who  has  a 
grievance  against  all  retail  associations.  He  says  he  does 
not  think  it  is  American  for  these  associations  to  restrict 
the  trade  of  their  members  as  they  do.  He  would  have 
competition  free  and  open,  leaving  every  man  to  sell  to 
whom  he  may.  "This  fencing  in  a  territory  and  saying  to 
a  man  'thus  far  thou  shalt  go'  cripples  the  efforts  and  ambi- 
tions of  a  merchant,"  he  writes. 

Well,  now,  I  don't  know  about  that.  But  if  it  is  so 
the  efforts  and  amoitions  of  this  retail  man  surely  need  not 
be  crippled.  He  is  in  a  position  to  be  a  free  lance,  and  can 
sell  lumber  from  Florida  to  Canada.  He  is  privileged  to 
sell  all  the  lumber  that  is  used  in  his  own  town  and  ?n  the 
towns  surrounding  him.  But  does  he?  I  should  like  to 
sit  down  and  talk  the  matter  over  with  him,  and  if  I  had 
that  pleasure  I  should  ask  him  how  much  more  lumber  he 
is  selling  than  he  would  sell  if  he  were  a  member  of  an 
association.  That  is  a  pertinent  question.  And  in  advance 
I  believe  I  know  something  of  the  answer  he  would  give. 
He  would  say  that  although  he  is  not  a  member  of  an 
association  he  is  restricted  in  territory. 

Every  yard  man  rigidly  guards  his  territory.  I  was  in 
a  town  in  which  every  yard  man  belongs  to  an  association, 
and  also  in  which  there  is  a  local  understanding  as  to  prices 
and  the  volume  of  trade  to  which  each  dealer  is  entitled. 
One  of  these  dealers  remarked,  "We  don't  let  any  outsider 
come  in  here." 

You  can  readily  interpret  that  remark.  It  means  that 
if  you  or  I  should  attempt  to  sell  a  bill  of  lumber  in  the 
territory  of  these  dealers,  in  classical  language  they  would 
be  "onto"  us,  and  that  we  would  have  to  meet  prices  which 
would  take  the  sand  out  of  us.  That  is  the  way  to  do  it,  too. 
When  a  yard  man  objects  to  becoming  an  association  mem- 
ber for  the  reason  that  it  will  clip  his  wings  in  regard  to 
the  volume  of  his  sales,  his  wings,  as  a  rule,  get  clipped 
anyway.  Bear  in  mind,  I  say  "as  a  rule."  There  generally 
comes  in  the  exception.  There  are  retail  dealers  who  will 


194  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

make  their  way  anywhere.  They  were  born  that  way.  They 
are  merchants  by  instinct.  It  is  as  natural  for  them  to  sell 
lumber  and  by  some  hook  or  crook  get  the  advantage  of 
other  dealers  as  it  is  for  them  to  breathe.  These  men,  for 
the  time  being,  would  succeed  whether  they  were  members 
of  an  association  or  not.  But  here  is  a  fact  that  gives  us 
a  Jeffries  blow  right  between  the  eyes  when  we  go  to  talk- 
ing against  the  association :  Nine  in  ten  of  the  most  prom- 
inent and  most  capable  dealers  in  the  great  western  country 
are  members  of  associations.  They  didrA  go  into  it  blindly, 
either.  They  are  men  of  good  mental  caliber  and  care- 
fully reasoned  the  thing  out.  They  did  not  want  to  be 
handicapped  nor  hoodooed,  hence  they  came  into  the  fold. 

I  have  no  vitriolic  words  for  those  dealers  who  do  not 
see  their  way  clear  to  swell  the  association  membership. 
Some  of  my  good  friends  in  the  trade  are  not  members.  I 
don't  ask  everybody  to  look  through  my  eyes.  The  good 
Lord  has  given  them  eyes  of  their  own.  I  think,  however, 
they  are  shortsighted  when  they  contend  against  association 
methods  and  principles,  and  very  likely  they  think  I  am 
shortsighted  in  thinking  so.  If  they  do  it  is  all  right.  I 
accord  to  them  the  same  privilege  that  I  enjoy. 

Doubtless  this  dealer  who  raises  objections  to  associa- 
tions has  engaged  in  the  retailing  of  lumber  as  a  life  work. 
If  he  hasn't  a  wife  and  children  he  ought  to  have  them, 
and  if  he  has,  like  a  good  husband  and  father  he  has  their 
future  welfare  in  view.  He  hopes  that  his  business  will 
increase;  that  he  will  secure  for  himself  a  good  home  and 
lay  up  something  for  sickness  and  old  age.  The  lumber 
business  is  the  foundation  of  his  financial  hopes.  And  I 
want  to  say  to  him  that  were  it  not  for  the  associations  he 
would  be  building  on  sand.  His  chances  in  the  retail  lumber 
business  would  not  be  worth  a  picayune.  He  would  better 
go  to  cobbling,  playing  baseball  or  even  trading  horses. 

I  should  like  to  have  this  man  visit  some  of  the  sections 
in  the  eastern  states  where  the  retail  yards  have  been  pushed 
out  of  existence,  where  the  wholesale  dealers  have  monop- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  195 

olized  all  the  trade,  and  then  tell  me  how  he  would  like  a 
dose  of  the  same  medicine.  Do  away  with  the  retail  asso- 
ciations and  it  would  be  the  same  elsewhere.  The  manu- 
facturers and  wholesale  dealers  carry  large,  assorted  stocks ; 
they  have  their  corps  of  salesmen ;  and  there  are  a  hundred 
and  one  of  them  who,  did  not  the  retail  associations  hold 
a  club  over  their  heads,  would  sell  lumber  to  anybody  who 
wanted  to  buy,  and  they  would  sell  so  cheap  that  the  small 
yard  man  would  have  no  chance. 

I  am  a  friend  of  the  retail  associations  because  they  pro- 
tect and  will  perpetuate  the  retail  business  of  the  country. 
They  are  the  great  sustaining  prop  under  the  yard  man's 
business  today.  This  dealer  may  denounce  the  associations, 
but  I  feel  assured  that  did  he  understand  how  much  he  is 
indebted  to  them  he  would  be  their  friend.  They  bear  to 
him  a  relation  similar  to  that  of  insurance — they  protect 
him. 


AN  IMPROVED  BOLSTER. 

This  bolster  is  heavier  at  the  end  than  the  ordinary  one, 
and  the  stakes  are  made  of  i-inch,  or  larger,  gas  pipe,  of 
any  length  desired,  with  a  shoulder  welded  on  one  side  of 
the  pipe  to  keep  it  from  dropping  through  too  far.  It  is 


simple,  yet  its  advantages  are  several.  To  start  with,  there 
are  straight  sides  against  which  to  pile  lumber.  The  same 
number  of  boards  of  a  given  width  can  be  piled  on  the  plat- 
form from  start  to  finish.  It  is  not  necessary  to  wiggle 


196  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

over  the  end  of  the  stake,  as  ordinarily  is  done  when  the 
pile  reaches  the  top  of  it.  When  it  is  desired  to  load  or 
unload  from  the  side  of  the  wagon  the  stakes  can  easily  be 
pulled  out,  which  leaves  the  way  clear.  The  depth  of  the 
bolster  where  the  stake  goes  through  is  four  inches,  and  it 
is  necessary  to  cap  and  bolt  them  strongly  so  they  may  not 
split.  For  replacing  the  old  style  bolsters  with  these,  the 
wagonmaker  furnishing  the  gas  pipe  and  retaining  the  bol- 
sters which  are  replaced,  the  cost  is  from  $4  to  $7  a  wagon, 
the  difference  in  price  depending  on  the  man  who  does  the 
job. 

With  a  heavy  and  high  load  these  stakes  will  spread  to 
some  extent,  as  will  all  tall  stakes  when  not  stayed  at  the 
top.  In  this  connection  I  want  to  illustrate  a  chain  which 


an  ingenious  yard  man  has  devised,  and  \vhich  may  be  used 
for  holding  these  gas  pipe  stakes  from  spreading,  or  in  any 
other  place  where  binding  is  necessary. 

You  will  observe  it  is  easily  made.  A  good  blacksmith 
would  make  a  short  job  of  it.  The  length  of  the  short  arm 
of  the  lever  is  two  inches ;  the  lever  may  be  as  long  as  you 
choose  to  have  it — say  just  long  enough  to  be  handy.  Draw 
the  chain  up  nearly  taut  and  hook  it  around  the  stakes 
or  elsewhere,  then  pull  the  lever  over  and  hold  it  in  place 
as  indicated  in  the  sketch.  In  the  yard  in  which  it  is  used 
they  wouldn't  dispense  with  it  for  its  weight  in  copper. 


READ  AND  YOU  WILL  KNOW. 

That  is  an  old  saying,  but  it  depends  for  its  truthfulness 
on  how  carefully  we  read.  The  world  is  fairly  full  of  people 
who  go  on  a  hop,  skip  and  jump  when  they  read.  It  is  the 
same  as  it  is  with  some  people  when  they  listen.  They 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  197 

cannot  hear  a  statement  and  report  it  correctly  to  save  them. 
I  say  they  cannot,  for  the  careless  way  of  registering  a 
statement  in  the  receiving  reservoir  of  their  thinker,  as  it 
were,  has  become  second  nature  to  them.  Then,  again,  they 
may  be  too  lazy  to  read  or  to  listen.  There  are  as  many 
men  lazy  mentally  as  there  are  physically.  And  oftentimes 
the  two  forms  of  laziness  are  not  combined  in  one  individual. 
Some  of  the  brightest  men  I  know,  men  who  are  as  indus- 
trious as  bees  in  doing  mental  work,  who  burn  midnight  oil 
and  harp  on  industry  as  the  keynote  to  all  material  success, 
have  not  enough  physical  get  up  to  hoe  a  short  row  of 
potatoes.  Then  there  are  those  who  pride  themselves  on 
their  physical  hustling  quality,  who  will  do  muscular  work 
unceasingly  and  swear  that  the  men  who  work  their  little 
think  tanks  are  lazy,  good  for  nothing  things  who  don't 
like  to  work,  yet  when  it  comes  to  mental  effort  these  very 
people  are  .the  personification  of  laziness. 

You  see,  it  is  owing  to  the  way  we  are  built.  The  lazy 
man  can  no  more  help  being  lazy  than  the  tall  man  can  help 
being  tall  or  the  black  man  black.  It  would  be  as  reasonable 
to  expect  a  leopard  to  change  his  spots  as  for  a  lazy  man  to 
get  over  his  ever  present  disposition  not  to  work.  A  dozen 
children  crying  for  bread  may  force  him  to  work,  his  appre- 
ciation of  the  opinion  that  the  community  may  have  of  him 
may  cause  him  to  put  forth  effort,  but  it  is  forced,  and  all 
the  time  his  very  bones  rebel  against  it. 

I  have  given  considerable  study  to  the  lazy  man,  and  I 
confess  I  have  not  been  able  to  analyze  him  to  my  entire 
satisfaction.  It  may  be  for  the  reason  that  no  great  man 
before  me  has  helped  me  out.  You  know  the  pioneer  in 
any  line  cannot  do  so  well  as  can  those  who  come  after 
him.  The  latter  build  on  the  pioneer's  work ;  they  take 
advantage  of  his  mistakes,  profit  by  them  and  erect  a  higher 
structure  than  he  did  or  could.  I  doubt  if  in  all  literature 
you  have  read  so  much  about  laziness  as  you  have  in  the 
last  three  minutes.  You  have,  of  course,  seen  it  defined 
as  idleness,  indolence,  but  that  treatment  of  it  does  not 


198  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

cover  the  ground.  The  lazy  man  is  in  some  way  deformed 
and  should  be  championed  as  he  should  did  he  have  the  hay 
fever  or  corns. 

I  did  not  start  out  to  write  a  piece  on  laziness,  but  these 
side  issues  will  force  themselves  in.  I  wanted  to  let  it  be 
known  that  if  some  of  the  members  of  the  retail  associations 
would  carefully  read  the  by-laws  and  constitutions  of  their 
organizations  they  would  know  more  about  them  than  they 
do.  But  instead  of  getting  at  it  carefully  they  indulge  in 
this  hop,  skip  and  jump  process  of  reading  and  listening, 
get  hold  of  the  matter  superficially,  and  then  talk  through 
their  hats. 

I  don't  know  how  many  small  yard  men  there  are  who 
are  worrying  themselves  bald  headed  under  the  belief  that 
the  line  yard  men  are  running  the  retail  associations  just 
as  they  have  a  mind  to.  Thus  they  think  the  line  yard  men 
get  their  wedges  in  and  are  able  to  take  all  sorts  of  advan- 
tage of  their  co-laborers  who  spread  out  less  than  they. 
There  are  dealers,  too,  who  are  doing  this  when  the  con- 
stitution and  by-laws  are  lying  in  a  drawer  of  their  desk, 
and  in  less  than  a  minute  they  could  so  compose  themselves 
that  they  could  go  home  and  sleep  soundly.  It  would  be  a 
great  piece  of  business  to  let  the  line  yard  men  have  control 
of  the  associations,  wouldn't  it?  And  it  would  be  as  great 
a  piece  of  business  to  bar  the  line  yard  men  out  and  give 
the  control  over  to  the  single  yard  men.  One  would  be  as 
sensible  as  the  other.  The  object  of  the  association  is  not 
expressly  to  benefit  either  single  or  line  yard  men.  It  is  to 
benefit  them  all. 

Take  the  Northwestern  association,  for  instance,  a  most 
successful  organization,  one  that  has  1,700  yards  on  its  list. 
Say  I  have  a  line  of  100  yards  scattered  throughout  this 
association's  territory.  I  become  converted  to  the  associa- 
tion idea.  I  ride  to  Minneapolis  in  a  palace  car,  dine  on 
turtle  soup  at  the  eating  station  on  the  way,  put  up  at  the 
West,  and  possibly  have  taken  a  cocktail  to  give  me  the 
right  kind  of  eclat  and  paid  a  quarter  to  have  my  shoes 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  199 

touched  up  with  stove  blacking;  I  go  across  to  the  Lumber 
Exchange  building,  take  an  elevator  car  to  the  secretary's 
floor  and  swinging  my  big  cane  march  into  the  secretary's 
room  as  pompously  as  though  I  were  an  alderman.  I  have 
not  paid  close  attention  to  association  matters,  and  we  sit 
down  to  discuss  them.  Seeing  that  I  am  a  big  gun,  or  think 
I  am,  I  ask  what  representation  I  will  have  in  the  forthcom- 
ing meetings.  "You  will  have  one  vote,"  says  the  secre- 
tary, in  his  quiet  way. 

"One !"  I  shout  so  loud  that  they  come  running  in  from 
the  hall  to  see  that  no  one  is  being  murdered. 

"One !  Don't  I  put  in  100  yards?  Don't  I  pay  you  $500 
in  admission  fees  ?  Do  you  mean  that  I  can  have  no  more 
to  say  about  running  the  association  than  my  competitor 
over  at  Pumpkintown,  who  has  paid  only  $5  and  whose 
yard  I  could  tuck  away  in  my  vest  pocket?" 

"Precisely,"  says  the  secretary,  "you  catch  my  meaning 
exactly." 

Now  there  is  the  law  and  the  gospel  of  the  matter  in 
that  brief  imaginary  conversation.  The  yard  man  out  at 
Sodtown,  who  has  not  been  from  Sweden  twelve  months 
and  who  has  not  yet  learned  how  to  fill  out  the  Australian 
ballot,  but  who  is  so  wise  as  to  have  cast  his  lot  with  the 
retail  association,  can  go  into  a  meeting  and  his  vote  will 
count  as  much  as  will  mine,  with  100  yards  on  the  associa- 
tion list.  "W-h-e-w !"  some  of  you  will  whistle ;  "I  didn't 
know  that."  Of  course  you  didn't,  and  that  is  why  you  keep 
on  talking  through  your  headgear  about  the  way  the  asso- 
ciations are,  or  can  be,  manipulated  by  the  line  yard  men. 

The  retail  association  is  a  cosmopolitan  institution.  It 
seeks  to  extend  equal  benefits  to  all.  It  is  under  stock  man- 
agement. If  I  am  entitled  to  vote  but  stay  at  home  from 
the  meetings,  and  then  business  affairs  do  not  shape  to  my 
liking,  what  right  have  I  to  grumble?  Whom  should  I  kick 
but  myself?  I  ought  to  have  been  on  the  ground  to  have 
voted  and  to  have  raised  my  voice,  if  necessary,  aganist  any 


200  REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER. 

proceedings  which  did  not  please  me.     That  would  have 
been  the  man  of  it.    Don't  you  say  so? 


AN  EFFECTIVE  DOOR  FASTENER. 

You  who  have  double  doors  in  lime  houses,  or  in  front 
of  molding  racks,  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  keep  them  shut 
and  even  when  shut  closed  tightly.  I  recently  saw  lime 
house  doors  on  which  was  printed  twice  in  big  black  letters, 
"Shut  These  Doors,"  and  there  they  stood  wide  open.  It 
was  suggested  to  the  yard  man  that  if  he  would  instruct 
his  men  to  keep  them  open  they  would  occasionally  get 
shut. 

This  fixing,  however,  has  to  do  with  holding  the  doors 


"As  good  a  fastener  as  money  will  buy." 

together  after  they  had  been  shut.  Double  doors  when  fas- 
tened with  a  hook  belly  out,  and  the  dust  sifts  in  at  the  top 
and  bottom.  This  simple  fastener  holds  them  where  they 
should  be — and  all  at  the  expense  of  a  few  cents.  The  cross 
piece  is  1x6x24  inches,  made  of  oak — yet  there  is  no  good 
reason  why  pine  would  not  answer  every  purpose.  Then 
shape  the  pieces  which  hold  the  ends,  with  three  bolts  fasten 
all  in  place  and  you  have  as  good  a  fastener  as  money  will 
buy.  It  is  a  fastener  which  fastens,  which  may  be  what 
yon  have  been  looking  after, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  201 

MATERIAL  THAT  IS  RETURNED. 

The  yard  man  had  something  to  say  about  the  material 
returned  from  jobs.  "In  cases  of  doors  and  windows,"  said 
he,  "if  there  are  misfits,  no  matter  who  may  have  made  the 
measurements,  back  they  come.  Not  long  ago  I  furnished 
a  small  mill  order,  and  the  specifications  were  that  nothing 
was  to  be  returned,  but  back  came  a  lot  of  oak  molding 
that  I  don't  know  that  I  can  sell  for  more  than  kindling 
wood  prices.  We  are  expected  to  take  these  things,  though. 
We  deal  in  them,  and  why  can't  we  sell  them  to  others? 
Others  may  not,  and  probably  will  not,  want  them,  but  that 
does  not  count  with  the  people  who  return  them.  Further- 
more, the  articles  are  put  in  at  a  lump  prrce,  and  when  they 
are  returned  the  question  is  asked,  How  much  do  you  sell 
them  for?  We  have  to  quote  the  retail  price,  and  they 
expect  something  near  that  price." 

Another  dealer  told  me  that  one  of  the  most  costly  rows 
he  ever  had  was  over  returned  material.  "I  had  furnished 
a  good-sized  job/'  said  he,  "and  there  was  a  surplus  of 
about  1,000  feet  of  dimension.  I  was  then  selling  dimension 
for  $16,  and  I  think  I  was  laying  it  in  my  yard  for  $13. 
When  we  came  to  settle  the  contractor  wanted  me  to  allow 
him  $14  for  the  thousand  feet  that  was  left  over,  and  I 
wouldn't.  The  fact  was,  to  get  the  bill  I  had  to  put  it  in 
at  cost.  The  contractor  didn't  know  that,  for  it  is  a  business 
rule  that  I  stick  by  that  when  I  figure  a  bill  in  a  lump  I 
wouldn't  tell  the  ghost  of  Jacob  what  price  I  put  in  this 
item  or  that  one  at.  In  my  opinion  it  is  nobody's  business. 
If  they  can  get  a  better  bid,  why,  let  'em  take  it,  but  if  mine 
is  the  lowest  I  am  not  going  to  tell  them  that  I  cut  so 
much  here  and  so  much  there.  As  I  say,  it  is  none  of  their 
business ;  that  is  my  business.  I  made  the  remark  that  I 
would  allow  him  $13,  and  he  flew  up  in  the  air  in  a  minute. 
You  know  what  fools  we  are  sometimes  to  tear  ourselves 
to  pieces  over  little  things.  In  that  case  he  was  a  fool  and 
so  was  I,  Today  I  would  have  said,  'All  right,  that  is  sat- 


202 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


isfactory.'  Very  likely  today  he  would  haul  that  dimen- 
sion in  my  yard  and  not  even  ask  me  how  much  I  would 
allow  hkn  for  it.  But  today  is  not  yesterday;  neither  is 
today  tomorrow.  We  grow,  or  we  ought  to,  as  we  see 
years.  The  carpenter  was  a  powdery  fellow,  he  touched  off 
my  fuse,  and  we  had  an  explosion  over  that  matter  of  a 
dollar !  I  sold  lumber  in  that  town  for  five  years  after  that ; 


"He  loaded  his  case  with  cigars." 

the  carpenter  was  working  there  all  that  time,  and  he  never 
bought  another  board  of  me." 

Probably  at  the  time  the  yard  man  thought  it  was  noth- 
ing to  laugh  at,  but  at  this  distance  the  whole  thing  seemed 
so  ludicrous  that  he  laughed  heartily. 

It  is  not,  of  course,  strange  that  the  average  man  should 
think  that  the  dealer  should  stand  ready  to  take  back  any- 
thing purchased  of  him.  I  have  seen  fancy  dry  goods 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  203 

returned  when  evidently  they  had  been  handled  by  the  whole 
family,  some  of  whom  had  dirty  fingers.  The  pristine  white- 
ness of  the  goods  had  departed,  but  that  cut  no  figure  with 
the  purchasers  who  had  changed  their  minds.  I  was  stand- 
ing in  a  drug  store  in  Chicago  when  an  intelligent  appear- 
ing man  came  in,  handed  a  prescription  to  the  druggist, 
said  he  had  no  use  for  it,  and  asked  if  it  could  be  returned? 
The  druggist  asked  him  how  much  he  paid  for  it,  and  on 
being  told  handed  him  50  cents.  No  sooner  was  the  man 
gone  than  the  druggist  poured  the  mixture  into  a  waste 
pail.  That  druggist  wouldn't  have  handed  that  half  dollar 
back  to  you  or  me,  but  no  doubt  this  man  was  one  of  his 
good  customers.  Very  likely,  to  say  nothing  about  buying  his 
medicines  there,  he  also  bought  his  cigars  and  whisky.  In 
fact,  he  loaded  his  case  with  cigars  before  he  left  the  store. 
At  first  blush  almost  any  man  would  say  that  one  of  the 
most  worthless  articles  in  the  world  to  any  one  for  whom  it 
is  not  filled  is  a  prescription.  And  probably  nine  in  ten 
times  we  would  be  better  off  if  we  would  keep  the  prescrip- 
tions out  of  us  internally  even  if  they  were  filled  for  us. 
This  man  didn't  know  but  the  preparation  could  be  used  in 
another  case.  Had  the  druggist  told  him  it  could  not  I 
know  from  the  looks  of  the  man  he  would  have  taken  it  all 
right.  We  know  so  little  about  the  business  of  others- 
there  is  where  the  rub  comes  in.  No  matter  in  what  line  a 
man  may  be  retailing  goods  these  petty  annoyances  con- 
front him. 


STAVING  OFF  COLLECTIONS. 

We  will  call  his  name  Jim,  though  that  is  not  what  they 
do  call  him.  He  is  manager  of  a  line  yard,  and  by  the  "old 
man"  is  thought  to  be  worth  his  weight  in  silver.  He  is  a 
crack  salesman,  and  when  it  comes  to  reliability  his  word 
goes  every  time.  But  he  is  not  a  man  who  would  sell  for 
cash  if  he  could.  Maybe  he  thinks  the  "old  man"  is  so 
rich  that  it  matters  little  whether  a  bill  of  lumber  is  paid 


204 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


for  this  year  or  next.  It  isn't  on  record  that  he  sells  to 
unreliable  people,  but  seemingly  he  has  an  idea  that  he  is 
cementing  himself  closer  and  closer  to  his  customers  when 
he  gives  them  plenty  of  latitude  in  the  matter  of  payments. 
On  one  occasion  the  auditor  came  around  and  showed  a 
decided  disposition  to  cut  down  the  total  of  the  accounts. 
Would  Jim  go  out  with  him  on  a  collecting  trip  ?  Certainly. 
There  was  a  man  living  twenty  miles  from  town  who  owed 
the  concern  a  bill  and  off  to  see  this  man  Jim  and  the 
auditor  posted.  They  found  him,  the  auditor  broached. the 
subject  of  payment  and  asked  Jim  how  much, the  account 


"Out  on  a  collecting  trip." 

was.  Jim,  with  a  flourish,  pulled  the  statement  from  his 
pocket  and  it  called  for  $3.50! 

The  "old  man"  at  headquarters  got  it  into  his  head  that 
this  particular  yard  was  not  keeping  up  with  the  procession 
in  the  matter  of  collections  and  provided  a  collector  to 
hurry  up  things.  Jim  made  the  rounds  with  the  collector, 
and  while  the  latter  would  urge  the, prompt  payment  of  the 
account  Jim  would  say  to  them  in  Swede  they  needn't  hurry 
a  blamed  bit ;  pay  when  they  got  a  good  ready ! 

When  a  man  came  in  to  settle  up  he  thought  the  account 
was  rather  large. 

"But  it  is  right,"  said  Jim, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  205 

"If  you  say  so  it  is,"  was  the  rejoinder,  and  the  amount 
was  paid.  Afterward,  when  looking  over  the  figures,  Jim 
discovered  that  by  an  error  he  had  collected  $100  too  much. 
Then  what  was  to  be  done?  His  word  was  considered  as 
good  as  law  by  his  acquaintances,  and  if  he  should  acknowl- 
edge his  error  the  fallibility  of  the  law  would  be  established. 
So  he  placed  the  $100  to  the  man's  credit  and  said  nothing 
Later  on  this  same  farmer  built  a  barn,  bought  the  bill 
of  Jim,  and  when  he  paid  the  bill  the  $100  was  deducted 
from  it.  He  never  learned  that  he  overpaid  in  the  first 
instance,  neither  has  it  been  made  plain  to  him  why.  his 
barn  bill  cost  him  so  little. 


CHANGE  IN  YARD  MANAGERS. 

The  line  yard  in  the  town  had  recently  put  in  a  new 
man,  and  I  thought  I  could  discern  a  glow  on  the  face  of 
the  single  yard  man.  He  said  in  effect,  the  oftener  that 
was  done  the  better  it  would  suit  him. 

The  little  incident  opens  up  a  great  field.  I  could  under- 
stand what  the  single  yard  man  was  driving  at  without  any 
explanation  on  his  part.*  He  was  thinking  that  the  new 
man  had  no  acquaintance,  and  that  he  must  learn  the  ropes 
of  that  particular  business  and  of  the  town,  before  he  could 
be  at  his  best  and  make  much  headway.  Then  having 
learned  the  ropes  he  would  like  him  to  be  sent  elsewhere 
and  a  new  man  come  in  who  would  have  to  learn  all  as  did 
the  man  before  him. 

„  Selling  lumber  differs  somewhat  from  selling  most  other 
lines  of  goods.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  better  a  yard 
man  is  acquainted  in  the  community  the  more  lumber  he 
will  sell.  On  a  bill  he  may  not  bid  lower  than  the  others,  but 
often  when  the  bids  are  equal  acquaintance  will  give  him 
the  business.  I  recently  saw  a  man  who  had  taken  charge 
of  a  yard  and  he  said  he  was  making  little  effort  to  sell. 


206  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

He  was  learning  the  people  and  their  ways.     It  seems  to 
me  that  the  man  was  showing  good  sense. 

The  "drizzle  trade,"  as  a  yard  man  called  it,  that  is,  the 
little  trade,  may  to  some  extent  go  to  a  yard  regardless  of 
acquaintance,  but  when  it  comes  to  proposed  buildings  of 
any  size  the  intentions  of  the  builders  are  generally  known 
weeks,  and  not  infrequently  months  ahead.  Then  there  is 
a  rush  for  the  business.  The  man  who  has  been  long  on 
the  ground,  who  knows  the  peculiarities,  financial  standing, 
etc.,  of  everybody — owner,  contractor,  carpenter — has  the 
inside  track.  He  can  often  "work"  a  contractor  when  a  new 
man  couldn't  touch  him  with  a  ten-foot  measuring  pole. 

If  a  farmer  wants  to  buy  a  suit  of  clothes,  a  pair  of 
shoes,  a  bill  of  groceries,  he  goes  to  a  store,  makes  his 
purchase  and  digs  out  for  home.  It  is  not  heralded  in 
advance  that  he  is  in  the  market.  Such  purchases  are  of 
minor  consequence  to  buying  a  bill  of  lumber  that  foots 
up  several  hundred  dollars. 

The  line  yard  men  are  not  blind  to  this  phase  of  the 
question,  either.  A  general  manager  said  to  me  his  purpose 
was  to  make  as  few  changes  as  possible.  He  understood 
that  a  good  old  man  was  much  more  valuable  than  a  good 
new  man.  He  said  nothing  about  the  satisfaction  the  change 
of  men  would  give  to  those  of  his  competitors  who  are  single 
yard  dealers,  but  being  a  bright  man  he  no  doubt  kept  up  a 
thinking  in  that  direction. 


CHEAP  SHED  GUTTER. 

If  ordinarily  a  shed  has  not  an  eaves  trough  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  the  shed  proprietor  would  better 
scratch  his  head  and  see  what  he  can  find  out.  Sheds  have 
been  underpinned  by  the  water  that  fell  from  the  roofs. 
Take  a  shed,  say  80x150  feet,  and  the  roof  turns  a  large 
amount  of  water  into  certain  channels.  On  several  occa- 
sions I  have  seen  the  pitch  of  the  ground  such  that  the  water 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


207 


from  the  roofs  would  run  directly  back  under  the  lumber. 
What  kind  of  troughs  to  use?  is  something  of  a  question. 
Tin,  while  expensive,  is  not  durable.  It  gets  badly  out  of 
•shape.  Not  long  ago  I  saw  a  tin  trough  on  a  shed  and  it 
was  so  sagged  that  the  water,  filling  it,  ran  over  in  a  big 
stream.  There  are  those  who  prefer  a  wooden  trough  to 
tin,  and  no  doubt  their  heads  are  level.  I  think,  however, 
this  appliance,  as  illustrated,  discounts  either  wood  or  tin; 
No  claim  is  made  that  there  is  any  originality  in  this  style 
of  gutter,  for  it  is  used  on  residences  right  along,  but,  as 


"The  result  is  a  perfect  gutter." 

they  say  in  patent  papers,  the  "combination"  of  gutter, 
lumber  shed  and  roofing  material  is  what  we  are  considering. 
The  elevation  may  be  made  by  a  2x4,  nailed  on  edgewise, 
and  then  the  roofing  simply  laid  over  it.  That  is  all  there  is 
to  it,  and  the  result  is  a  perfect  gutter.  On  an  8o-foot  shed 
there  is  a  slant  of  24  inches,  but  the  proprietor  thinks  that 
20  inches  would  answer  as  well.  If  the  shed  were  a  longer 
one  the  water  at  intervals  could  be  'discharged  into  upright 
pipes. 


PATENT  LATH. 

Recently  when  making  one  of  my  fashionable  calls  at  a 
fine  residence  that  had  not  been  built  a  long  time  the  hall  pre- 
sented a  sorry  sight.  Several  yards  of  plaster  had  fallen 
from  the  ceiling,  and  the  good  lady  of  the  house,  to  use  a 
homely  expression,  was  in  a  pickle.  She  got  scared  almost 


208 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


to  death  when  it  fell.  When  the  noise  was  heard  the  hired 
girl  rushed  in  the  direction  of  it,  mistook  the  dust  for  smoke 
and  yelled  that  the  house  was  on  fire  !  Such  an  outcry 
would  grate  on  the  nerves  of  us  big  men,  to  say  nothing 
about  innocent,  timid  women.  The  lady  explained  that 
patent  lath  was  used,  that  the  kind  ordered  by  the  con- 
tractor was  exhausted  by  the  time  the  hall  was  reached, 
there  was  no  more  of  it  in  town,  and  another  make  was  used 
to  finish  the  job.  The  groove  in  the  lath  had  failed  to  hold 
the  plaster,  and  down  it  came. 

I  relate  this  little  incident,  for  I  take  it  that  the  yard  men 


"Mistook  the  dust  for  smoke." 

want  to  do  things  in  a  way  that  will  give  satisfaction.  They 
don't  want  to  sell  a  lath  the  conduct  of  which  will  scare 
women  and  children  to  death.  The  retail  lumber  dealer 
ought  to  know  as  many  building  points  as  any  carpenter, 
and  the  best  of  them  do.  It  is  a  part  of  their  business. 
They  take  and  read  building  journals,  and  are  competent  to 
give  good  advice  to  their  customers  who  build.  These  cus- 
tomers may  not  follow  this  advice  always,  and  if  they  don't, 
let  them  do  the  other  thing.  It  is  a  glorious  thing  that 
when  men  come  at  us  with  advice  we  can  do  the  other  thing. 
As  a  rule,  however,  the  intelligent  man  in  any  line  is  glad 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  209 

of  pointers  at  any  time,  and  from  any  source.  Still,  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  the  heads  of  all  of  us  are  not  bursting 
with  intelligence.  An  acquaintance  of  mine  built  a  house 
and  when  showing  me  the  plans  a  bit  of  advice  was  prof- 
fered. When  his  house  was  completed  I  asked  him  if  he 
did  so-and-so,  and  he  said,  "By  George!  I  didn't  think  of 
it  again  after  you  told  me/' 

You  can  see  how  valuable  he  thought  my  advice  was! 
I  didn't  care,  though.  By  thinking  of  it,  and  acting  on  it, 
he  would  have  saved  $30,  and  had  a  better  house  than  he 
has  now.  I  did  my  duty,  however,  which  is  the  main  thing 
in  life. 

1  cannot  learn  that  patent  lath  is  making  any  great  head- 
way. A  month  ago  a  yard  man  who  keeps  his  eyes  open 
picked  up  a  piece  of  lath  a  foot  long  that  he  had  as  a  sam- 
ple, and  said,  ''You  see,  the  groove  in  this  make  of  lath  is 
too  large.  It  holds  too  much  mortar.  When  drying  the 
edge  of  the  groove  will  turn  outward."  A  contractor  made 
this  same  criticism.  This  contractor  said  the  proper  way 
to  put  on  patent  lath  was  "to  nail  it  for  keeps,"  so  that  the 
wet  mortar  would  not  warp  it  out  of  level.  He  also  thought 
it  was  beneficial  to  dampen  the  lath  before  it  is  put  on. 


COST  OF  SELLING  LUMBER. 

An  Ohio  dealer  asks  if  I  know  how  much  it  costs  to  sell 
lumber.  It  is  difficult  to  get  at  the  maximum  or  minimum 
expense  of  selling  lumber  at  retail.  I  have  talked  with 
many  dealers  on  the  subject,  and  their  figures  ranged 
from  $1.75  to  $2.50  a  thousand.  A  big  line  yard  concern 
places  the  figures  at  $2,25,  and  doubtless  that  amount  is 
correct  in  that  case  as  the  company  is  noted  for  its  exact 
business  methods.  There  are  many  yard  men  who  do  not 
know  how  much  it  costs  to  sell  lumber.  They  make  no 
figures  to  that  end,  and  wouldn't  "give  a  darn  to  know/' 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

as  one  of  them  expressed  it.  "I  am  making  a  living  right 
along  and  don't  care  about  the  detail  figures,"  he  said. 

One  yard  man  figured  with  his  stub  pencil  on  the  margin 
of  a  newspaper  and  said  it  cost  him  $3.50.  Knowing  some- 
thing about  the  volume  of  his  trade,  and  his  expenses  of 
conducting  it,  I  mildly  suggested  he  might  have  made  a 
mistake,  but  he  ran  over  the  figures  again  and  said  no. 
Come  to  find  out  he  had  put  himself  in  at  a  salary.  I  asked 
him  if  he  expected  to  get  a  salary  and  the  profits  of  the 
business  at  the  same  time,  and  he  said  that  was  the  way  he 
looked  at  it.  It  isn't  the  way  many  others  would  look  at 
it,  however.  The  proprietor  goes  with  the  business;  he 
isn't  a  hired  man. 

"Having  made  those  figures,"  said  a  yard  man,  "they  are 
not  right  after  all,  as  the  lumber  is  made  to  share  the  whole 
expense  of  the  business.  That  leaves  no  allowance  for  sell- 
ing coal,  cement  and  lime.  I  believe  after  all  that  $2  will 
cover  it." 

A  dealer  who  is  on  railroad  land  and  consequently  pays 
no  rent,  summed  it  up  as  follows :  Interest  on  $4,000  at 
7  percent,  $280 ;  man  at  $25  a  month,  $300 ;  taxes,  $65 ; 
insurance,  $40;  coal  for  office,  $10;  incidentals,  $25;  total, 
$720;  that  makes  it  $1.80  a  thousand.  Sash  and  doors? 
No,  I  didn't  take  those  into  account." 

On  the  face  of  them,  however,  these  figures  are  not 
accurate.  We  all  know  that  $25  would  not  cover  inci- 
dentals. In  any  business  the  incidentals  pile  up.  This  man 
unloads  on  trucks  from  the  cars,  therefore  he  has  no  hauling 
bill.  He  keeps  a  horse,  however,  which  he  plugs  around 
with  drumming  up  business,  and  while  he  calls  it  his  family 
horse  at  least  half  the  cost  of  keeping  him  should  be  charged 
to  his  list  of  running  expenses. 

It  may  be  seen  from  these  figures  which  end  of  the 
horn  those  dealers  are  coming  out  at  who  get  into  a  jolly 
scrap  and  put  out  lumber  at  cost.  And  really  I  have  known 
dealers  who  thought  they  were  not  going  into  a  very  big 
hole  if  they  got  cost.  Simply  a  new  dollar  for  an  old  one, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


211 


they  said.  But  it  is  not  as  much  as  that.  It  is  giving  away 
at  least  a  good  dollar  for  every  half  thousand  feet  of  lumber 
sold. 


TO  HELP  FROM  CAR  TO  SHED. 

More  than  half  of  the  yard  men  of  the  country,  if  they 
had  a  car  of  lumber  on  one  side  of  an  alley  and  were  going 


"To  do  away  with  the  middle  man." 

to  pile  the  lumber  in  a  shed  on  the  other  side,  would  load 
the  boards  from  the  car  door  on  to  a  push  cart,  and  then 
the  push  cart  would  be  run  across  to  the  end  of  the  pile 
and  the  lumber  put  in  place.  This  big,  wide  ladder  is  to  do 
away  with  the  middle  man,  as  it  were.  It  is  as  wide  as  one 
bent  of  the  shed,  the  sides  resting  firmly  against  the  posts. 
A  plank  is  placed  from  the  car  door  to  one  of  the  rungs 
of  the  ladder,  the  shed  end  of  the  plank  being  elevated  as 
the  pile  increases  in  hight.  It  is  a  labor  saver. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 
OFF  TO  THE  BALL  GAME. 

The  boss,  the  boy  said,  was  over  where  they  were  play- 
ing ball.  Being  asked  where  that  was  he  pointed  across 
the  corner  of  the  town,  and  said  it  was  over  beyond  the 
farthest  church.  It  was  3  o'clock,  I  did  not  want  to  walk 
a  couple  of  miles,  so  I  looked  through  the  yard,  then  pulled 
a  chair  out  in  front  of  the  office  in  the  shade  and  amused 
myself  with  a  story  in  the  patent  inside  local  paper.  A 
woman  drove  up  and  asked  me  if  I  had  any  lime.  I  called 
to  the  boy  through  the  window,  but  there  was  no  response. 
Then  I  stepped  to  the  yard  entrance  and  gave  another  yell, 
but  in  vain.  I  said  to  the  lady,  who  had  her  hair  frizzled 
and  wore  big  eyed  spectacles,  that  I  was  a  stranger,  simply 
hanging  around  there;  that  once  there  was  a  boy  on  the 
premises,  but  I  thought  the  earth  had  swallowed  him  up, 
and  asked  her  if  she  would  leave  her  order.  No,  she  said, 
she  wanted  to  take  the  lime  right  along  with  her  and  then, 
womanlike,  she  jerked  on  the  lines  and  started  in  the  direction 
of  up  town.  At  length  the  boy  put  in  an  appearance  and  we 
chatted  about  the  town,  the  corn  crop,  base  ball,  and  I 
found  he  was  a  nice  kind  of  a  boy.  He  said  he  was  staying 
there  during  vacation  and  did  not  know  much  about  the 
lumber  business  yet.  "I  have  got  where  I  know  a  barrel 
of  cement,"  he  said  laughingly. 

Then  a  man  who  looked  as  though  he  might  be  a  well 
to  do  farmer  drove  up  behind  a  good  team  .and  asked  if 
John  was  handy.  John  is  the  front  name  of  the  lumberman. 
The  boy  said  no,  that  he  was  over  to  the  ball  game,  asked 
him  if  he  could  help  him  out,  and  was  told  that  he  could 
not.  Then  the  man  and  I  exchanged  a  few  words  about 
the  corn  crop  and  the  hog  market  and  he  drove  away.  On 
meeting  a  stranger  out  here  you  can  talk  about  almost  any- 
thing you  have  a  mind  to,  but  if  you  don't  speak  of  the 
corn  crop  and  the  price  of  hogs  you  are  considered  hetrodox. 

No.  3  was  a  man  who  when  hurriedly  walking  past, 
halted  and  said  that  Jim — a  carpenter  as  I  learned — wanted 
"another  thousand  of  them  shingles  sent  right  over." 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  213 

"I  don't  know  how  I  am  going  to  get  the  shingles  over,'' 
the  boy  remarked  to  me.  "I  suppose  the  man  who  does 
the  dray  ing  is  over  to  the  game." 

The  boy's  wits  took  the  right  turn,  however.  Going 
to  a  house  near  by  he  returned  with  a  wheelbarrow  and 
piling  the  shingles  on  trundled  away  with  them.  I  had 
finished  the  patent  inside  story,  so  I  walked  around  and 
whistled.  I  never  let  myself  out  musically  in  the  whistling 
line  when  there  is  anybody  within  hearing  distance,  but  I 
felt  that  here  I  was  alone,  and  moreover  the  stillness  was 
such  that  I  wanted  to  punch  a  hole  in  it.  It  was  nearly  5 
o'clock  when  another  man  came  along  and  turned  into  the 


"He  returned   with  a    wheelbarrow." 

office.  I  told  him  there  was  nobody  at  home,  that  the  boss 
was  over  at  the  ball  game,  the  boy  had  made  a  horse  of 
himself  and  gone  to  deliver  some  shingles,  that  I  was  a 
stranger  in  a  strange  land  but  if  I  could  do  anything  to 
make  him  happy  just  say  the  word.  He  listened  to  me  with 
the  manners  of  a  thoroughbred  gentleman,  and  when  I  had 
finished  he  said  he  was  the  boss,  and  asked  me  what  he  could 
do  for  me.  I  stuck  my  card  into  his  fingers,  we  shook 
hands,  he  said  he  was  glad  to  see  me,  and  I  of  course 
dittoed  it. 

There  is  not  much  of  importance  in   this   little  recital 


214  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

maybe,  though  I  think  it  depends  on  the  way  you  look  at 
it.  In  one  sense  I  respect  this  man  because  he  was  out  to 
see  them  twirl  the  sphere.  I  am  an  admirer  of  all  outdoor 
sports.  They  are  setting  a  new  pace  for  the  younger  people 
of  the  country.  If  my  boys  go  to  college  I  want  them  to 
belong  to  every  club  that  raises  Cain  out  doors,  no  matter 
if  they  don't  get  on  intimate  terms  with  the  old  Greek 
duffers.  The  most  of  us  can  remember  when  in  certain 
circles  muscle  and  rugged  health  were  separated  from 
alleged  culture.  A  pale  face  and  a  far-away,  simple  look 
in  the  eye  were  as  desirable  as  it  was  to  wear  the  correct 
shaped  hoop  skirt,  or  a  pair  of  pants  with  a  stripe  down 
the  leg.  The  first  pair  of  pants  I  wore  minus  that  stripe  I 
thought  I  was  hardly  in  fit  form  to  be  seen  among  men, 
and  especially  among  the  girls.  It  is  impossible  for  any  man 
to  tell  how  great  a  benefit  cycling  is  to  us  as  a  people. 
Anything  that  gets  us  out  doors  and  makes  us  exercise 
does  us  good.  The  devil  isn't  half  so  active  out  of  doors  as 
he  is  under  roofs.  The  present  question  is,  however,  if 
you  would  have  gone  away  and  left  your  lumber  yard  in  the 
hands  of  a  green  boy  as  this  man  did?  I  will  guarantee 
that  nine-tenths  of  you  would  not.  Now,  possibly  this  dealer 
is  so  rich  that  he  doesn't  care.  He  may  not  be  ambitious 
to  build  up  more  of  a  trade  than  he  already  has.  I  am  not 
passing  judgment  on  him.  But  as  I  hung  around  there 
I  was  putting  myself  in  his  place.  I  was  thinking  that  if 
it  was  my  business  I  would  want  that  woman  to  get  the  lime 
she  called  for.  I  would  want  to  know  what  that  man  wanted 
of  me.  He  might  have  been  thinking  of  building,  or  paying 
a  bill.  I  would  not  want  to  leave  the  place  alone  while  the 
boy  was  wheelbarrowing  the  shingles  a  half  mile.  These 
are  only  three  counts,  possibly  minor  ones,  but  they  all 
developed  within  two  hours. 

There  is  one  thing  in  particular  that  gives  a  business  air 
to  a  place,  and  that  is  to  have  someone  on  hand  to  take  care 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


215 


of  the  prospective  buyer.  There  are  few  business  houses 
so  arranged  that  a  customer  can  visit  them,  press  a  button 
and  go  away  satisfied. 


EAVES  TROUGHS  ON  SHED  HOODS. 

We  all  ought  to  know  a  good  deal  about  open  shed 
hoods.  Not  long  ago  I  saw  a  hood  that  was  not  a  hood 
as  it  did  not  extend  more  than  three  feet  beyond  the  side 
of  the  shed.  It  was  a  new  shed,  too,  but  the  owner  of  it  had 


"Rooted  to  the  spot." 

already  seen  the  error  of  his  ways  and  said  if  it  were  to  do 
over  again  he  would  use  20  instead  of  1 6-foot  boards  for  the 
roof. 

The  open  shed  without  the  hood  is  much  given  to  disa- 
greeable crying.  In  rainy  weather  it  will  weep  copious  tears 
down  the  back  of  your  neck,  on  the  lumber  that  is  being 


216  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

loaded  and  unloaded ;  and  even  with  a  hood  on,  in  a  wet 
season  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  a  stretch  of  mud  the  entire 
length  of  the  shed  where  the  water  from  the  eaves  has 
settled.  You  would  think  that  with  the  inventive  genius 
of  all  of  us  we  would  have  overcome  this  before  this  late 
day,  wouldn't  you?  But  we  seem  not  to  have  done  so. 
In  the  yard  in  which  I  saw  the  appliance  the  hood  projected 
over  the  driveway  to  the  scales,  and  the  eaves  trough  was 
attached  to  enough  of  the  roof  to  protect  the  scales  and  the 
approach  to  them.  The  yard  man  took  me  into  the  yard 
to  show  me  his  stock  of  lumber,  but  when  I  got  as  far  as  this 
eaves  trough  I  was  ''glued  to  the  spot,"  as  the  old  time 
novelist  was  wont  to  put  it.  I  could  see  several  stocks  of 
lumber  every  day,  but  an  eaves  trough  on  a  shed  was  not 
so  common. 

To  erect  these  eaves  troughs  is  easily  done.  A  board 
a  foot  wide  or  less  nailed  to  the  ends  of  the  rafters,  another 
board  of  a  like  width  so  nailed  to  this  board  as  to  form  a 
right  angle,  pieces  of  band-iron  fastened  to  the  edge  of  this 
last  board  and  thence  to  the  roof  as  a  support,  and  it  is  done. 
It  strikes  me  that  the  idea  appeals  to  all  the  common  sense 
that  a  man  has. 


A  BILL  IN  DETAIL  WANTED. 

I  heard  a  yard  man  complaining  about  a  shortage  in  a 
lot  of  sheathing  he  had  received.  The  bill  called  for  3,500 
feet  when  actually  there  were  several  hundred  feet  less  than 
that  amount.  The  stuff  was  of  several  lengths,  beginning 
with  10  feet,  and  from  that  up. 

It  will  probably  transpire  that  this  man  has  some  other 
dealer's  sheathing,  and  that  some  other  dealer  has  the  stuff 
ordered  by  him.  Mistakes  occur  in  the  best  of  families,  it 
is  said,  and  no  doubt  they  occur  in  the  best  of  lumber  yards, 
wholesale  as  well  as  retail.  With  a  force  of  men  loading 
from  trucks  several  cars  at  the  same  time,Nt  would  be  sur- 
prising if  now  and  then  there  was  not  placed  in  one  car 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


217 


lumber  that  was  intended  for  another.  Several  cases  of 
this  kind  have  been  brought  to  my  notice.  Sometimes  the 
mistakes  do  not  amount  to  much  one  way  or  the  other,  and 
at  others  they  represent  a  good  many  dollars.  A  yard  man 
told  me  that  he  received  lumber  that  was  worth  $100  more 
than  his  bill  called  for.  He  notified  the  shippers  that  they 
had  made  a  mistake  in  filling  his  order,  and  they  were 
inclined  to  take  the  view  of  it  that  some  ticket  sellers — rail- 
road and  circus — take  when  they  are  told  they  do  not  give 
the  right  change  back.  Then  he  wrote  them  that  he  could 
stand  it  if  thev  could,  which  led  them  to  believe  that  the 


"A  force  of  men  loading  from  trucks." 

mistake  was  in  his  favor,  and  on  investigation  it  was  shown 
that  two  orders  were  mixed  when  loading. 

"I  have  informed  the  house  of  the  shortage  in  the 
sheathing,"  said  the  yard  man.  "and  I  suppose  I  will  get 
a  letter  telling  me  there  were  several  lengths,  and  that  I 
may  have  overlooked  some  of  it.  It  was  simply  billed 
3,500  feet  of  sheathing.  To  get  at  what  there  was  I  had 
to  sort  up.  Now  the  way  to  have  billed  that  sheathing  would 
have  been  so  many  pieces  of  10  feet,  so  many  of  12,  and  so 
on.  Then  it  would  have  taken  me  no  time  to  have  counted 
up  and  compared  with  the  invoice." 


218  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

You  undoubtedly  have  .discovered  that  there  is  a  wide 
difference  in  different  yards  in  their  systems  of  billing. 
There  are  men  who  if  they  could  would  make  one  scratch 
of  a  pen  pass  for  a  bill  of  goods.  There  are  men  who  will 
avoid  the  physical  exertion  of  swinging  a  pen  as  there  are 
those  who  will  avoid  digging  ditches.  I  have  helped  to 
mark  goods  when  it  took  all  sorts  of  fiddling  around,  and 
even  some  guessing,  to  find  out  what  was  what.  Especially 
in  dry  goods  confusion  often  arises  from  a  generalized  bill. 
Then  there  are  bill  clerks  who  itemize  in  their  bills,  giving 
trade  numbers,  and  even  colors  when  it  may  make  things 
clearer.  I  once  heard  a  billing  clerk  reproved  for  using  his 
pen  too  little  when  making  out  bills.  He  said  that  was  the 
way  he  was  taught  at  the  business  college.  The  reply  that 
"A  man  isn't  worth  hades  room  in  actual  business  who 
can't  get  above  business  college  methods"  was  characteristic 
of  the  man  who  said  it,  and  I  think,  too,  it  contained  a  big 
grain  of  sense.  When  we  measure  everything  by  the  rules 
of  some  particular  school  rest  assured  we  will  fall  flat  at 
some  point.  What  we  need  to  do  is  to  get  above  and  beyond 
schools. 


LUMBER'S  FLIGHT. 

We  don't  know  a  thing  until  we  find  it  out,  and  we  never 
find  it  out  until  we  have  the  opportunity.  There  is  no 
getting  around  that  proposition.  It  may  sound  silly  but  if 
you  sit  up  all  night  you  can't  get  around  it.  I  have  met 
yard  men  right  along  who  saw  no  reason  for  the  advance 
in  lumber.  Every  little  while  up  she  would  go  another 
notch,  and  every  time  these  yard  men  would  say  in  a  dis- 
gusted way,  "There  she  goes  again !  Them  blasted,  bloated 
lumbermen  up  north  are  the  microbes  which  are  raising  the 
trouble."  To  find  out  all  about  the  condition,  and  to  tell  you 
just  as  it  is,  was  the  reason  I  put  on  a  fresh  boiled  shirt 
and  struck  out  for  Minneapolis. 

To  go  from  a  country  where  the  prevailing  noise  is  the 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  219 

grunt  of  the  hog,  into  a  great,  bustling  city  that  roars 
day  and  night,  and  where  the  chimes  in  some  tower  wake 
you  up  every  quarter  hour,  is  a  change  that  marks  an  epoch, 
as  it  were,  in  a  quiet  life.  A  countryman  hardly  knows  what 
to  make  of  it,  or  how  to  act.  After  wading  mud  ever  since 
the  snow  went  off,  and  then  all  at  once  for  a  fellow  to  find 
himself  on  asphalt  pavement  that  is  swept  every  day  makes 
him  almost  feel  that  surely  he  is  on  his  way  to  paradise. 
To  be  able  to  see  the  pretty  things  in  the  store  windows,  buy 
peanuts  on  the  corners,  sleep  in  a  hotel- bed  where  the  sheets 
are  changed  every  day,  is  bewitching,  and  I  was  inclined  to 
think  I  would  like  to  stay  right  along  with  them ;  but  at 
the  same  time  do  you  know  the  people  in  the  great  cities 
are  longing  to  get  out  where  every  morning  we  brush  the 
dew  from  the  grass  with  our  brogans  when  we  are  attending 
to  our  chores?  Said  one  great  lumberman,  whose  thought 
you  would  think  were  far,  far  above  such  common  things, 
"I  should  like  to  come  down  there,  lie  around  for  a  week 
and  see  the  corn  grow." 

I  told  him  to  come  on,  that  we  would  fill  him  up  on 
bacon  and  johnny  cake,  and  if  he  felt  like  taking  a  new 
form  of  exercise  he  could  tie  his-  old  wheel  up  to  the  hitching 
post  and  hoe  in  my  garden. 

So  our  tastes  differ.  We  country  gentlemen  pine  for 
the  cities,  while  the  city  dudes  would  like  to  make  a  break 
for  rural  life.  At  noon  today,  in  the  restaurant,  a  girl 
brought  me  spring  lamb  with  some  kind  of  grass  sprinkled 
over  it,  and  the  girl  was  so  homely  that  honestly  I  wouldn't 
marry  her  if  you  would  give  me  20  cents.  That  is  no  reason 
why  she  should  despair,  however,  for  the  time  will  come 
when  some  fellow  will  marry  her  for  nothing.  It  is  owing 
to  our  diversified  tastes  that  all  of  us  find  a  place  in  life. 
These  tastes  get  us  married  to  sweet  girls  when  nobody  else 
would  have  us,  and  so  adjust  matters  that  this  turns  out  to 
be  a  pretty  good  old  world  after  all. 

You  can  take  my  word  for  it  that  the  manufacturers  have 
on  their  highest  heeled  pumps,  and  go  around  with  big 


220 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


feathers  in  their  hats,  and  metaphorically  pounding  big  base 
drums.  They  are  happy.  I  felt  it  in  the  air  as  soon  as  I 
reached  St.  Paul.  There  is  plenty  of  ozone  in  the  air  up 
there ;  too,  they  sell  beer  and  such  things,  and  a  country 
Jake  has  to  mind  his  eye  else  he  may  find  himself  falling 
headfirst  over  the  high  cliffs  into  the  mighty  Mississippi. 
The  advance  of  lumber  was  mixed  up  with  these  other  sen- 
sations. A  lumberman  asked  me  out  to  have  a  glass  of 
lemonade,  and  while  we  were  sucking  it  through  straws  he 
said  the  present  condition  of  the  lumber  market  beat  any- 
thing he  had  ever  seen.  "Why,"  said  he,  "the  stock  of  low 
grade  lumber  is  dangerously  depleted." 


A  NOVEL  LIME  HOUSE. 

A  young  and  hustling  Illinois  concern  has  built  a  lime 
house  that  is  entirely  out  of  the  ordinary.  There  was  an 
effort  to  combine  every  good  quality  that  any  lime  house 


"A  lime   business   calls   for   every  convenience." 
may  possess.     In  the  first  place  these  dealers  knew  that  lime 
keeps  best  in  a  tight  room.     They  sell  bulk  lime  largely  if 
not  entirely,  and  sell  a  great  deal  of  it.     There  have  been 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

days  when  they  have  sold  enough  to  fill  a  car.  A  lime  busi- 
ness of  such  volume  calls  for  every  convenience  in  handling. 

The  house  inside  is  funnel  shaped,  gravity  bringing  the 
lime  down  directly  in  front  of  the  door,  where  it  is  handled 
with  the  shovel.  The  outside  door  is  4x6  feet,  slides  up- 
ward, and  two  feet  back  is  another  door  of  a  like  size.  When 
the  house  is  filled  this  inside  door  can  be  slightly  raised  and 
the  movement  of  the  lime  thus  gauged. 

The  scale  beams  are  set  in  the  wall,  and  when  the  door 
which  incloses  them  is  shut  it  is  flush  with  the  side  of  the 
building.  The  platform  is  just  high  enough  to  accommodate 
a  wagon.  These  yard  men  say  they  can  now  handle  lime 
with  some  comfort.  In  their  former  location  and  with  their 
old  style  lime  house  there  were  men  who  would  quit  their 
jobs  rather  than  act  as  lime  purveyors.  They  would  not 
put  up  with  the  lime  filling  their  eyes,,  noses,  mouths,  ears 
and  sifting  down  their  backs. 


OUR  LITTLE  DIFFERENCES. 

No  matter  how  apparently  simple  a  business  is,  there 
are  new  complications  arising  all  the  time.  Merely  to  sell 
lumber — the  novice  would  think  it  was  nothing  to  do  that ; 
still,  if  he  were  to  take  a  hand  in  it  he  would  find  plenty 
of  nuts  to  crack.  There  seems  to  be  botheration  by  the  peck 
all  along  the  line,  not  only  in  the  lumber  business  but  in 
every  business.  In  lumber  the  wholesale  man  worries  the 
retailer,  the  consumer  worries  the  retailer,  and  it  must  be 
confessed  that  at  times  the  retailer  worries  the  wholesaler. 
We  needn't  all  die  on  that  account,  however.  If  we  take 
it  coolly  we  will  sail  along  fairly  well,  and  life  after  all  will 
seem  worth  living. 

'The  higher  lumber  goes  the  more  particular  the  retail 
men  are  getting,"  a  salesman  said  to  me.  That  may  be  so 
in  a  case  or  two,  but  I  don't  believe  it  holds  generally  true. 
Too  many  of  us  are  apt  to  judge  the  many  by  the  few. 


222  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

What  if  I  had  said  to  this  man,  "The  higher  lumber  goes 
the  finer  the  wholesale  men  do  their  grading.  They  are 
bound  to  get  all  the  money  out  of  it  possible."  That  would 
not  have  been  a  very  nice  remark  for  me  to  make,  would  it  ? 
It  would  have  been  just  as  nice  as  the  one  he  made,  though. 
I  do  not  like  to  see  blame  attached  where  it  does  not  belong. 
Neither  the  wholesale  nor  retail  men  are  angels  yet,  and 
will  not  be  before  they  get  through  selling  lumber  here. 

This  agent  talked  as  though  the  yard  men  around  the 
country  were  sitting  up  nights  in  order  to  find  some  fault 


"The  gang  that  was  playing  euchre." 

with  the  shipments  made  to  them  these  days.  It  is  foolish  to 
talk  like  that.  There  is  a  host  of  yard  men  who  know  their 
business,  and  they  are  going  to  enter  no  complaint  so  long 
as  they  are  treated  right.  These  men  go  on  year  after  year 
doing  business  with  wholesale  lumbermen  and  there  is  no 
friction  that  enters  into  the  deals.  On  the  other  hand,  I 
am  bound  to  say  "there  are  others,"  for  there  are  retail  men 
who  know  very  little  about  lumber,  and  again  there  are  those 
whose  conscience  would  not  be  stretched  to  an  aching  point 
if  they  should  get  the  better  of  a  wholesale  man,  or  anybody 
else.  I  am  speaking  of  the  exception  to  the  rule  now,  how- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  223 

ever.  If  a  man  felt  it  in  his  soul  that  he  was  cut  out  for  a 
scalawag,  and  wanted  to  follow  the  calling,  he  could  find  a 
more  prolific  field  than  retailing  lumber. 

To  go  to  the  other  branch  of  the  trade :  The  northern 
country  is  full  of  wholesale  men  from  whom  I  should  expect 
perfectly  fair  treatment.  That  is  not  saying  that  in  every 
case  I  should  expect  a  satisfactory  shipment.  Fair  treat- 
ment and  satisfactory  shipments  do  not  go  together  always. 
I  may  receive  a  miserable  lot  of  lumber  in  a  shipment,  but 
if  the  shipper  makes  it  right,  cheerfully  and  readily  correct- 
ing all  errors,  I  am  receiving  from  him  fair  treatment.  You 
and  I — just  as  good  as  we  are — make  mistakes,  and  when 
we  do  so  it  would  not  please  us  to  have  somebody  come  back 
at  us  and  howl  that  we  are  dishonest.  If  a  shipment  from  a 
wholesale  man  is  not  according  to  Hoyle,  but  he  stands 
ready  to  make  it  so,  no  blame  can  be  attached  to  him. 

I  recently  saw  a  part  of  a  car  of  thick  stuff  that  the  yard 
man  said  was  not  what  he  bargained  for.  So  he  entered  a 
protest.  Now,  there  is  this  peculiarity  in  human  nature : 
Almost  any  man,  while  he  would  admit  that  he  is  liable  to 
make  some  mistakes,  does  not  think  he  has  made  them  until 
it  is  proved  to  him.  Take  a  wholesale  man,  for  instance, 
who  aims  to  be  as  straight  as  a  string;  if  occasion  required 
he  would  say,  "Of  course,  any  of  us  are  liable  to  make  mis- 
takes." He  has,  say,  fifty  men  working  in  his  yard,  some 
of  them  with  skulls  as  thick  as  an  ape's.  I  have  noticed  it- 
is  often  very  difficult  to  convince  that  man  that  a  mistake 
has  been  made  in  his  shipments  unless  it  is  shown  to  him 
in  black  and  white.  Take  that  car  of  thick  stuff.  I  don't 
believe  the  wholesale  dealer  intentionally  sent  it  to  the  yard 
man.  It  is  preposterous  to  think  he  did.  In  the  first  place  he 
isn't  that  kind  of  a  man,  and  in  the  second  place  if  he  was 
he  would  know  that  the  yard  man  to  whom  the  shipment 
was  made  was  not  the  kind  of  hairpin  to  receive  such  lum- 
ber. He  knows  what  lumber  is,  and  when  he  buys  a  certain 
grade  he  is  going  to  get  it;  else  he  doesn't  pay.  Under 
these  circumstances  you  see  how  shortsighted  it  would  have 


224  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

« 

been  in  the  wholesale  man  knowingly  to  have  shipped  an 
off  grade.  It  would  simply  be  courting  trouble  with  his 
eyes  open.  No  doubt  a  cog  slipped  in  the  yard  somewhere. 
Maybe  the  foreman  was  so  blind  drunk  he  couldn't  see 
straight  that  day.  Maybe  the  night  before  he  had  been  up 
until  4  o'clock  with  his  best  girl  and  there  were  so  many 
sticks  in  his  eyes  that  he  couldn't  tell  a  pin  hole  from  a 
post  hole. 

Several  of  us  have  faced  these  conditions.  The  man 
who  goes  on  duty  every  day  in  the  year  with  a  clear  mind 
and  a  bright  eye  is  a  jewel  as  men  run.  We  are  so  fond  of 
our  toddy,  pink  teas  and  balls  that  we  put  in  hours  elsewhere 
when  we  ought  to  be  at  home  and  in  bed.  As  a  result  of 
this  waste  of  nerve  force  we  make  mistakes,  have  lapses  and 
show  bad  temper.  I  once  heard  a  business  man  say  that 
he  believed  the  theater  had  knocked  him  out  of  dollars  and 
dollars.  He  had  a  passion  for  theaters  just  as  some  men 
have  for  strong  drink.  He  was  a  hard  worker,  it  was  neces- 
sary for  him  to  be  at  his  place  of  business  early  in  the 
morning,  he  rarely  got  home  before  12  o'clock  at  night; 
maybe  his  stomach  would  have  beer  and  fried  oysters  in 
it ;  he  did  not  get  rest  enough,  and  as  a  consequence  he 
was  less  alive  to  business  chances  than  otherwise  he  would 
have  been.  That  is  why  he  thought  the  theater  had  been 
a  drawback  to  him,  financially,  and  no  doubt  it  had  been. 

When  the  yard  man  kicked  on  that  thick  stuff  the  whole- 
sale man  said  it  was  queer  that  such  a  mistake  should  be 
made.  The  yard  man  offered  a  certain  amount  for  the  car, 
but  the  shipper  said,  "O,  no;  not  this  year!" 

"Take  your  old  lumber,  then,"  replied  the  yard  man. 

Then  a  man  came  on  to  inspect  the  lumber,  and  he  found 
that  the  yard  man  was  right  in  every  particular,  and  he 
said  he  would  go  home  and  advise  the  "old  man"  to  accept 
the  yard  man's  offer,  as  he  considered  it  all  the  lumber  was 
worth.  Here  is  where  the  beauty  of  the  deal  comes  in : 
The  yard  man  does  not  blame  the  "old  man"  up  north  one 
iota.  He  said  to  me  he  knew  the  "old  man"  was  all  right, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  225 

and  I  know  a  good  deal  about  the  "old  man"  myself,  and 
would  trust  him  with  my  purse  in  the  dark.  Now,  that  is 
the  way  to  get  along.  If  I  had  heard  the  yard  man  say 
that  the  "old  man"  was  a  no  such  thing  I  would  have  told 
him  that  I  thought  he  was  mistaken;  that  the  "old  man" 
didn't  know  any  more  about  that  shipment  of  lumber  than 
I  did,  and  I  would  bet  my  hat  on  it.  I  think  I  know  what 
kind  of  a  reply  the  yard  man  will  get  from  that  manufac- 
turer up  north.  The  shipper  will  accept  the  yard  man's 
offer  for  the  lumber,  and  in  addition  apologize  for  the 
trouble  the  yard  man  has  been  put  to.  Then  everything  will 
be  lovely  again.  The  next  time  they  meet  they  will  shake 
hands,  smoke  together,  and  go  right  on  and  buy  and  sell 
lumber. 

That  is  the  way  we  must  get  along  with  our  differences 
if  we  can.  Above  all,  don't  get  warm  under  the  necktie. 
If  a  shipment  is  not  right,  having  informed  the  men  who 
made  it,  you  can  tell  pretty  well  from  the  tone  of  their 
letter  whether  there  was  an  intentional  wrong. 

I  recently  saw  a-lot  of  lath  that  was  as  bad  as  it  is  made, 
and  the  yard  man  went  at  the  shipper  hammer  and  tongs. 
I  doubt  if  he  took  the  right  course.  No  wholesaler  on  earth 
could  have  forced  him  to  accept  such  lath  as  that ;  therefore 
why  didn't  he  keep  his  shirt  on?  If  he  had  there  is  no 
knowing  but  he  could  have  settled  for  the  lath  on  a  basis  of 
kindling  wood  prices.  A  hot  headed  man  is  not  a  bargain 
maker.  He  slops  all  over  the  county.  The  minute  we  get 
mad  all  the  fool  there  is  in  us  comes  right  to  the  surface. 


A  CASE  OF  SCREENS. 

A  few  weeks  ago  mention  was  made  of  a  company  down 
in  Maine  that  has  built  up  an  immense  business  in  screen 
windows  and  doors.  Its  market  is  in  the  territory  east  of 
the  Rockies,  and  possibly  also  west  of  them.  My  attention 
was  first  called  to  this  company  when  I  was  building  a  little 


226  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

shanty  of  my  own.  My  screen  business  was  solicited  several 
times,  I  hearing  from  the  company  by  letter,  circular  and 
booklets.  Its  trade  literature  was  remarkable  for  the  ele- 
gance with  which  it  was  gotten  up.  The  highest  art  of  the 
printer  had  been  expended  on  it.  The  impression  would  be : 
The  concern  that  sends  this  stuff  out  is  up  to  snuff;  no 
slouchy  concern  would  do  it. 

Evidently  there  are  sash  and  door  men  who  were  inter- 
ested in  this  account,  as  two  of  them  have  asked  me  for 
further  information.  One  of  them  said  he  never  before  had 
heard  of  the  Maine  concern,  and  presumably  the  other  had 
not.  Several  yard  men  also  have  shown  an  interest  in  the 
matter,  and  they  all  told  me  they  had  never  heard  of  the 
company  that  was  doing  this  immense  specialty  business. 
Very  likely  the  reason  they  have  not  heard  of  the  company 
is  that  it  sells  to  the  consumer  direct.  We  don't  like  these 
fellows — of  course  we  don't — and  I  am  doing  my  best  to 
initiate  you  into  their  methods  of  doing  business  so  that 
you  may  enjoy  some  of  the  screen  traffic  they  are  taking 
from  your  territory.  And  one  of  their  principal  methods  is 
to  hustle  for  the  business ! 

When  stopping  at  a  large  hotel,  on  going  to  my  room 
the  first  thing  that  attracted  my  attention  was  the  screen  on 
which  was  stamped  the  name  of  this  Maine  company.  I 
jerked  it  out  about  as  lively  as  I  could  and  looked  it  over. 
I  tell  you  it  is  a  fine  screen,  unlike  the  bungling  affairs 
which  are  turned  out  from  a  hundred  and  one  establishments 
throughout  the  country.  Yet  this  thought  came  to  me: 
What  sense  is  there  in  making  a  bungling  screen?  With 
the  material  at  hand  and  tools  to  work  with  any  fair 
mechanic  ought  to  make  a  screen  that  is  not  bungling.  If  I 
were  a  maker  of  screen  windows  and  doors  and  turned  out 
such  work  as  is  turned  out  by  many  I  would  get  hold  of 
one  of  these  down  east  screens  and  learn  how  to  save  lumber 
and  make  a  trim  looking  screen  that  would  please  the  eye. 

The  next  morning  I  said  to  the  landlord  that  I  had  slept 
like  a  top ;  that  there  were  no  mosquitos  buzzing  around  me 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  227 

as  there  were  the  night  before,  and  that  his  house  seemed  to 
be  nicely  screened.  He  said  he  thought  it  was,  and  then, 
without  further  ado,  like  a  gentleman  and  scholar,  he  went 
on  and  told  the  whole  story.  "There  are  202  openings ;  180 
windows  and  22  doors,"  he  said.  "The  cost  was  an  even 
$300,  fixtures  included.  The  doors,  you  see,  are  oak  frames, 
and  the  window  frames  are  pine.  The  concern  sent  a  man 
here  to  take  the  measurements,  and  he  was  'onto'  his  job, 
I  can  tell  you.  Every  window  and  door  fitted  perfectly,  it 
not  being  necessary  to  take  a  shaving  from  one  of  them.  I 
call  it  a  perfect  job." 

That  was  as  good  information  as  I  wanted  to  get  in 
one  day.  After  breakfast  I  made  straight  for  the  local 
inside  finishing  factory  and,  knowing  the  proprietor  pretty 
well,  I  could  talk  with  him  in  a  way  that  I  couldn't  with  a 
stranger.  He  said  he  had  just  answered  a  letter  from  a 
builder  who  complained  of  tardiness  in  filling  his  order. 
Two  years  ago,  he  said,  he  had  had  no  such  trouble.  "I 
wrote  him,"  said  the  factory  man,  "that  there  was  this  dif- 
ference :  Two  years  ago  I  was  looking  for  jobs  while  now 
jobs  are  looking  for  me  at  such  a  rate  that  I  can  hardly  take 
care  of  them."  He  said  he  had  made  a  pile  of  screen  doors 
this  season,  many  of  them  with  cypress  frames.  He  dropped 
into  the  use  of  cypress  almost  by  accident.  Being  pushed 
for  material  and  having  some  cypress  on  hand,  he  had  run 
it  in,  and  the  result  was  highly  satisfactory.  It  stays  in 
place  better  than  some  other  kinds  of  wood,  he  said,  and  he 
would  lay  in  another  stock  when  his  present  one  was 
exhausted. 

"While  you  are  doing  such  a  rushing  business  in  screens, 
why  didn't  you  get  the  job  of  screening  the  So-and-so 
hotel?"  I  asked  him.  He  said  he  had  noticed  the  screens 
were  in,  but  did  not  know  who  got  the  job,  and  when  I 
told  him  it  was  the  Maine  company  for  an  instant  there 
was  a  look  in  his  eye  as  though  he  had  slipped  a  cog. 

"Do  you  know  how  much  they  cost  and  how  many  open- 
ings there  are?"  he  queried.  Giving  him  the  information 


228  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

he  wanted,  he  took  his  pencil  from  behind  his  ear  and,  sit- 
ting on  the  platform,  figured  on  a  piece  of  board.  "I  would 
have  done  the  job  for  from  $200  to  $225 — the  last  named 
figure  at  the  outside,"  he  said. 

"Did  you  go  for  the  job?"  I  asked. 

"No,  I  didn't,"  said  he. 

There  was  the  old,  old  story,  especially  in  the  screen 
line — no  effort  was  made  to  get  the  work  and  a  smart  out- 
sider slid  in  and  took  it  at  higher  than  local  rates. 


SHOULD  HE  SELL  HEMLOCK? 

A  dealer  asks  if  in  my  opinion  it  would  be  a  good  idea 
for  him  to  carry  hemlock  as  well  as  pine.  He  says  he  has 
no  doubt  as  to  the  superiority  of  hemlock  as  a  framing  tim- 
ber; his  competitors  do  not  carry  it,  and  should  he  put  it 
in  stock  he  thinks  he  could  talk  it  in  a  way  that  would 
increase  his  sales.  I  have  not  the  pleasure  of  the  acquaint- 
ance of  this  yard  man,  having  never  visited  the  town  in 
which  he  is  located,  know  nothing  about  his  competitors  and 
nothing  about  the  class  of  people  to  whom  he  sells ;  there- 
fore any  reply  is  liable  to  be  at  random,  but  I  will  pull  the 
trigger  and  let  'er  go. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  merchants  in  the  retail  field ;  in 
fact  there  are  more  than  two,  but  we  will  say  there  are  two, 
as  that  will  answer  the  purpose.  The  policy  of  one  of  these 
kinds  is  to  use  as  small  capital  in  his  business  as  possible. 
It  is  not  his  intention  to  educate  his  customers  up  to  any- 
thing; sell  them  what  they  want,  and  keep  only  what  they 
are  liable  to  call  for.  Many  of  these  men  pass  for  and  are 
good  business  men  in  their  way.  They  get  along  well,  die 
rich  and  arrange  in  their  wills  to  have  tall  monuments 
mark  their  resting  places.  These  men  were  not  born  mer- 
chants, however.  Had  their  lots  been  cast  in  a  big  city, 
say  in  the  dry  goods  business,  where  the  volume  of  trade 
depends  on  the  variety  that  is  kept,  on  the  effort  to  lead 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  229 

people  to  believe  that  they  stood  in. need  of  certain  goods 
because  they  were  in  fashion  or  cheap,  they  would  have 
been  eating  almshouse  soup  in  six  months.  They  cannot 
meet  that  kind  of  competition. 

I  want  to  repeat  what  has  been  said  before,  namely,  that 
you  cannot  point  to  a  retail  lumberman  who  has  gotten 
anywhere  near  the  top  who  kept  a  small  stock  during  the 
process  of  climbing.  The  highest  degree  of  success  and  a 
small  stock  never  go  together.  I  know  a  dealer  in  a  one- 
yard  town  who  thought  he  was  performing  this  miracle ; 
his  trade  was  large,  his  profits  good  and  he  sold  his  lumber 
about  as  fast  as  it  arrived.  But  he  slipped  a  cog.  All  the 
time  there  was  a  worm  gnawing  at  the  vitals  of  his  business. 
We  don't  notice  these  worms  at  first,  but  they  gnaw  and 
gnaw,  and  the  first  we  know  they  have  punctured  our  tire. 
It  is  surprising  how  quickly  things  get  noised  about.  The 
story  got  abroad  that  this  man  was  doing  a  big  business 
but  that  he  did  not  keep  in  stock  enough  lumber  to  meet 
the  demands  of  his  trade,  and  the  first  he  knew,  as  from  a 
clear  sky,  kerslap  went  in  another  yard  alongside  of  him. 
The  world  is  full  of  people  who  are  going  to  jump  in  and 
take  our  trade  away  from  us  if  they  can.  Then  this  yard 
man  gnashed  and  wailed  his  teeth,  as  the  Irish  orator  said, 
but  the  damage  was  done.  He  is  now  perhaps,  selling  a  third 
of  the  lumber  that  he  was  putting  out  two  years  ago,  his 
hated  rival  having  taken  the  lion's  share  of  the  business. 
Had  he  been  so  inclined  he  could  have  traced  the  cause  of 
No.  2  yard  direct  to  his  business  methods.  By  his  effort  to 
squeeze  through  on  the  smallest  capital  possible  he  wrung 
the  neck  of  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg. 

The  other  kintl  of  merchant  is  a  different  kind.  Go 
into  a  town  of  any  size,  ask  for  the  leading  lumberman,  and 
you  will  not  find  him  presiding  over  a  stock  of  300,000  feet 
of  lumber.  He  isn't  selling  peanuts.  If  he  is  unable  to 
furnish  a  barn  bill  to  a  farmer  who  wants  it  quickly  he  pulls 
down  his  vest  and  says  he  will  not  be  caught  in  that  fix 
again.  I  have  often  heard  it  said :  "If  you  double  your 


230 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


stock  and  carry  both  pine  and  hemlock  you  must  nearly 
double  your  investment."  True  enough,  but  what  of  it? 
That  is  the  question ;  what  of  it?  If  you  have  no  money  to 
invest  don't  do  it — that  is  plain  enough — but  if  you  have  the 
money  and  are  working  to  establish  a  business  that  shall 
stay  by  you  like  a  brother;  that  shall  cause  to  be  spread 
abroad  the  news  that  it  is  your  aim  to  carry  a  stock  that 
will  meet  any  reasonable  demand;  that  shall  keep  competi- 
tion at  a  distance — in  short,  that  you  may  be  master  of  the 
situation,  I  have  never  learned  of  any  way  but  to  put  money 
into  the  undertaking. 

I  will  concede  that  it  is  none  of  my  business  whether 


"To  such  treatment   it  will   object." 

a  yard  man  doubles  up  on  his  stock  to  any  extent  or  not. 
This  is  a  free  country,  and  he  can  do  as  he  likes  in  the  mat- 
ter. It  does  seem  to  me,  however,  that  a  merchant  is  under 
some  obligations  to  his  customers ;  that  it  is  his  duty  as  well 
as  business  to  provide  for  them  a  reasonable  assortment  of 
goods  from  which  to  select.  That  is  certainly  the  mission 
of  a  merchant. 

If  this  yard  man  is  disposed  to  handle  hemlock  he  will 
find  it  an  admirable  framing  timber.  I  do  not  believe  that 
for  this  purpose  it  has  a  superior.  It  will  cling  to  a  nail  as 
though  it  loved  it.  Its  merits  will  stand  all  that  an  eloquent 
man  can  reasonably  say  about  them.  It  is  well  enough  to 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  231 

take  a  little  care  in  handling  it,  though.  It  is  hardly  equal 
to  pine  for  roughing  it.  I  should  not  think  of  piling  hem- 
lock dimension  out  doors  provided  I  had  a  suitable  shed 
in  which  to  put  it.  Under  cover  it  will  retain  its  shape  and 
color  as  well  as  pine.  Do  not  permit  it  to  be  abused  by 
alternately  submitting  it  to  rain  and  sun.  To  such  treat- 
ment as  that  it  will  object. 

Hemlock  is  being  sold  more  and  more,  averaging  in  price 
about  $2  less  than  pine  of  a  corresponding  grade.  If  I  were 
building  a  house  I  would  not  pay  that  difference  unless  my 
carpenter  overruled  me.  I  did  build  a  ranch  and  he  over- 
ruled me,  but  I  would  not  let  him  do  it  the  next  time.  He 
said  it  would  require  so  much  more  time  to  work  hemlock 
that  it  would  make  up  in  the  difference  in  price,  but  I  have 
thought  since  he  successfully  worked  me,  preferring  to  do 
that  to  working  hemlock. 


A  SHINGLE  DISPLAY. 

If  there  is  any  good  reason  why  the  wares  of  the  lum- 
berman should  not  be  as  systematically  displayed  as  are 
those  of  the  dry  goods  man  or  clothier  speak  right  up  and 
tell  us.  I  sometimes  think  that  we  fellows  who  sell  lumber 
are  not  alive  to  the  businesslike  methods  of  our  brother 


"In  plain  sight  the  patterns  of  shingles." 

merchants  in  other  lines.  Of  course  you  are  alive  to  all 
these  methods.  I  am  speaking  of  the  yard  man  over  in  the 
next  county. 

There  is  the  little  item  of  fancy  shingles.     In  only  one 


232  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

office  have  I  seen  a  display  of  these  shingles  which  does 
credit  to  the  man  who  did  it.  As  a  rule  any  old  way  is  good 
enough.  In  one  office  a  couple  of  shingles  were  on  the 
window  sill  and  another  pattern  was  lying  on  the  rail  which 
divided  the  bookkeeper's  department  from  the  outside  world. 
Evidently  not  long  ago  the  question  of  fancy  shingles  had 
been  raised  and  these  samples  brought  in  for  the  examina- 
tion of  the  possible  purchaser.  The  probability  is  that  this 
possible  purchaser  was  a  woman  who  had  a  desire  to  see  the 
different  patterns,  and  if  that  be  so  you  are  safe  to  wager 
she  wondered  why  the  yard  man  did  not  have  these  shin- 
gles where  he  could  put  his  hand  on  them  the  minute  she 
asked  him  about  them.  With  a  stock  of  fancy  shingles, 
molding,  brackets,  head  blocks,  spindles  etc.  a  man  who 
has  an  office  in  which  there  is  any  room  may  make  a  display 
which  would  lead  a  would-be  buyer  to  think  that  the  man 
who  is  selling  lumber  is  not  ashamed  to  show  his  goods. 

To  make  such  an  arrangement  of  fancy  shingles  as  is 
illustrated  take  any  strip  of  wood,  a  lath  for  instance,  tack 
the  shingles  to  it,  following  out  any  arrangement  of  pat- 
terns which  may  appeal  to  your  taste,  tie  a  string  to  both 
ends  of  the  stake,  drive  a  nail  in  the  wall  and  hang  the 
shingles  up.  You  will  then  have  in  plain  sight  the  patterns 
of  shingles  you  have  and  can  quickly  show  them  to  anyone 
who  may  contemplate  their  use.  The  material  for  this  rack 
will  not  cost  a  cent  and  the  shingles  can  be  tacked  to  the 
strip  and  hung  on  the  wall  in  ten  minutes  any  time.  It 
beats  fishing  samples  out  from  under  the  desk  or  safe  or 
running  to  the  shed  every  time  a  customer  mentions  a  fancy 
shingle. 


KNOWING  ONE'S  BUSINESS. 

A  Minnesota  yard  man  writes  that  a  farmer  bought  some 
coal  of  him  and  then  proceeded  to  tell  him  where  the  coal 
came  from,  how  it  is  handled  and  other  information,  all  of 
which  made  the  yard  man  feel  like  a  2x4  for  the  reason 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  233 

that  a  granger  could  come  into  his  office  and  instruct  him 
to  such  an  extent  regarding  an  article  he  was  handling.  He 
says,  "Now,  I  am  not  going  to  admit  that  I  am  the  only 
western  retailer  who  knows  little  about  the  exact  location 
of  the  mines  producing  the  different  kinds  of  hard  and  soft 
coal,  or  the  kind  that  combines  the  qualities  of  both.  Why 
doesn't  some  coal  company  put  out  information  on  this 
subject  ?  It  could  be  given  on  a  leaflet,  calendar  or  blotting 
pad,  and  I  sincerely  believe  it  would  prove  a  good  advertise- 
ment." 

We  will  leave  the  suggestion  with  the  coal  dealers ;  what 
interests  me  is  to  know  that  this  yard  man  is  so  touched 
when  he  discovers  that  some  man  outside  his  line  knows 
more  than  he  does  about  an  article  he  sells.  It  will  probably 
be  no  balm  to  his  wounded  feelings  to  say  in  his  hearing  that 
he  stands  with  the  big  majority.  That  does  not  help  him 
out  any.  Coal  in  the  most  of  the  lumber  yards  is  regarded 
as  incidental ;  that  is,  lumber  is  first  and  coal  drops  in  as  an 
adjunct.  The  wonder  is,  however,  there  are  so  many  lumber 
dealers  located  in  this  western  country  of  broad  prairies 
who  know  so  little  regarding  the  manufacture  of  the  boards 
they  are  selling  every  work  day  of  the  year.  Many  of  them 
have  never  visited  a  saw  mill.  A  yard  man  who  has  sold 
lumber  for  years  incidentally  told  me  he  had  no  idea  what  a 
commercial  saw  mill  was  like,  further  than  that  he  had  seen 
pictures  of  it. 

I  heard  a  yard  man  when  selling  a  bill  of  lumber  to  a 
farmer — a  good  sized  bill  it  was,  too — dilate  on  the  way  his 
lumber  was  manufactured.  He  told  the  farmer  that  the  most 
of  his  stock  came  from  a  certain  concern,  with  an  air  that 
carried  with  it  the  idea  that  on  that  account  the  stock  was 
superior;  and  then  he  went  on  to  tell  about  the  process  of 
manufacture,  how  the  logs  were  hauled  out  of  the  water  with 
the  bull  chain  and  how  fast  the  saw  would  walk  through 
them.  The  farmer  listened  attentively — it  was,  in  fact,  open- 
ing up  a  new  world  to  him — and  no  doubt  he  thought  the 
lumber  came  from  the  greatest  establishment  on  earth  !  How 


234  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

much  this  recital  had  to  do  with  selling  the  bill  of  lumber 
I  don't  know ;  I  do  believe,  however,  that  it  made  a  most 
favorable  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  buyer  and  that  he 
left  the  premises  believing  that  the  yard  man  knew  his 
business.  And,  beloved,  if  we  can  get  that  impression 
abroad  we  have  taken  a  long  step  forward.  For  us  it  is 
worth  money  for  the  public  to  think  that  we  know  our  busi- 
ness. If  the  typewriter  on  which  I  am  whacking  off  these 
words  gets  out  of  order  to  whom  is  it  taken?  To  the 
mechanic  who,  in  my  opinion,  knows  his  business.  If  you 
want  a  pair  of  shoes  made,  a  suit  of  clothes;  want  the 
services  of  a  lawyer,  a  physician,  you  go  to  the  man  who 
knows  his  business,  don't  you?  No  man  has  ever  known 
too  much  about  his  business,  and  it  is  possible  for  him  to 
know  so  little  that  his  ignorance  will  trip  him. 

The  junketing  trips  which,  following  retail  association 
meetings,  have  been  made  by  the  association  members  have 
been  educators.  On  these  occasions  there  are  yard  men  who 
went  through  mills  who  had  never  seen  them  before,  and 
when  looking  over  these  mills  they  were  literally  reading  up 
on  their  business. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  YARD. 

If  you  have  a  competent  man  in  your  yard  you  are  in 
high  luck.  I  walked  through  a  yard  that  was  in  fine  order. 
A  second  look  to  find  something  that  was  out  of  shape,  or 
place — broken  lath,  or  boards  pitched  into  a  corner  or  under 
the  piles  was  unsuccessful.  And  by  the  way,  this  pitching 
of  stuff  under  the  piles  to  get  it  out  of  the  way  makes  me 
think  of  the  slovenly  habit  we  men  at  times  have  of  throw- 
ing our  old  boots  and  soiled  shirts  under  the  bed. 

"Good  yard  man,  have  you?"  the  proprietor  was  asked. 
"In  some  respects,"  was  the  reply.  "He  is  the  best  man 
I  ever  had  to  keep  stock  in  shape,  but  his  memory  isn't  an 
inch  long."  I  readily  inferred  what  that  meant.  It  meant 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


235 


that  Tom  Jones  might  buy  a  bundle  of  lath,  or  possibly  a 
thousand  feet  of  boards,  and  they  never  would  be  charged. 
Above  all  things  the  man  in  the  yard  should  have  a 
good  memory.  If  he  have  not  there  is  something  that  is 
going  to  get  away  from  him.  If  I  had  an  income  equal 
to  the  value  of  the  material  which  goes  out  of  the  retail 
yards  of  the  country  uncharged  you  would  not  catch  me 
roaming  around  this  winter  sleeping  in  cold  hotel  beds  and 
trying  to  chew  beefsteak  that  is  nearly  as  tough  as  I  am. 
I  would  have  a  mansion  on  Easy  street,  eat  baby  mushrooms 
and  drink  champagne  from  bottles  which  had  the  cobwebs 
of  ages  on  them.  An  excellent  retail  man — a  man  who  aims 
to  keep  tab  on  everything  connected  with  his  business — 


"Sleeping  in  cold  hotel  beds." 

was  telling  me  how  many  slips  a  former  yard  man  of  his 
made.  One  of  his  little  mistakes  was  to  let  a  whole  load  pf 
shingles  go  out  uncharged.  In  a  hundred  and  one  yards  in 
which  less  caution  is  taken  that  load  of  shingles  would  have 
been  a  dead  loss. 

In  an  office  in  Ohio  the  bookkeeper's  window  overlooks 
the  driveway  that  enters  the  yard.  Nobody  can  go  out  or 
in -without  attracting  the  attention  of  the  man  in  front  of  the 
window,  and  he  is  supposed  to  make  a  minute  of  even- 
team  that  leaves  the  yard  with  lumber  and  every  man  who 
carries  away  a  stick  on  his  back.  This  looks  somewhat  like 
state  prison  methods,  but  it  saves  dollars. 


236  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

Right  here  I  want  to  tell  you  of  a  queer  duck  I  once 
knew.  Financially  he  was  perfectly  responsible,  bought 
his  household  necessities  and  luxuries  on  credit  but  never 
paid  a  cent  until  a  bill  was  presented.  When  we  had  our 
feet  on  the  same  table  and  were  pulling  away  at  cigars,  in  a 
burst  of  confidence  he  said  he  was  aware  that  first  and  last 
many  items  were  omitted  from  his  bills.  He  said  it  "paid" 
him  to  run  accounts.  This  man  is  of  course  a  villain,  though 
no  doubt,  he  would  excuse  himself  by  saying  that  he  had 
paid  promptly  every  cent  of  indebtedness  that  was  presented 
to  him.  He  was  simply  taking  advantage  of  the  lapses 
which  occur  in  more  than  nine-tenths  of  the  retail  mercan- 
tile establishments. 

The  determination  of  a  good  yard  boss  to  see  that  a 
record  of  every  article  that  leaves  the  yard  is  turned  in 
at  the  office  I  should  call  one  of  the  first  qualifications. 

It  sometimes  comes  to  me  that  we  expect  too  much  of 
our  yard  men.  If  they  are  not  thoroughly  posted  on  grades 
we  cannot  forgive  them.  We  expect  them  to  keep  the  stock 
in  fine  shape.  We  look  for  them  to  show  tact  as  salesmen. 
We  rebel  when  they  omit  to  charge.  If  in  a  line  yard  they 
must  be  competent  to  look  after  liens  and  collections.  And 
all  these  qualities  we  expect  to  buy  for  how  much?  For 
$40  a  month,  not  infrequently.  The  trouble  comes  in,  how- 
ever, when  we  do  not  buy  them  for  that  amount,  or  for  any 
other  amount,  for  often  it  seems  an  impossibility  to  get 
them  combined  at  any  price.  I  know  a  yard  man  who  is 
paid  close  to  $2,500  a  year  and  he  is  worth  every  cent  of  it. 
He  has  the  whole  group  of  qualifications  and  it  follows  that 
he  is  a  jewel. 

I  like  to  get  away  from  the  boss  and  talk  with  the  em- 
ployees. They  will  at  times  tell  me  more  than  the  boss  will. 
A  pleasure  to  me  at  any  time  is  to  associate  with  intelligent 
workmen ;  men  who  have  brains  yet  do  not  seek  to  live 
by  their  wits.  First  and  last  some  of  these  employees  un- 
load their  woes  on  me.  Last  fall  when  the  weather  would 
permit  of  sitting  out  on  lumber  piles  and  whittling  a  young 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  237 

man  in  a  yard  asked  me  if  I  knew  where  he  could  better 
his  condition.  He  said  he  "worked  like  a  dog"  at  wages 
that  seemed  to  him  inadequate.  Then  I  had  to  tell  him 
frankly  that  if  I  were  running  a  yard  and  a  man  should 
want  the  position  of  yard  manager  and  should  tell  me  that 
he  had  the  capacity  to  work  like  a  dog  it  would  not  be  con- 
sidered a  recommendation.  I  told  him  that  it  is  a  good 
thing  to  be  industrious  but  if  our  brains  do  not  supplement 
the  work  of  our  hands  we  are  the  next  thing  to  goners.  I 
explained  the  best  I  could  the  qualifications  of  a  successful 
yard  man  and  I  trust  a  little  light  drifted  through  the  crev- 
ice that  was  rent.  He  evidently  had  an  idea  that  to  tear 
around,  keep  busy,  lift  his  inwards  out,  was  what  was  ex- 
pected of  a  yard  man.  It  is  not  these  but  it  is  knowledge, 
care,  watchfulness,  loyalty,  civility.  Why,  I  would  no 
sooner  trust  a  customer  of  mine  in  the  hands  of  some  yard 
men  than  I  would  trust  my  old  violin  to  be  repaired  by  a 
boiler  maker.  I  have  seen  something  of  this.  I  have  seen 
yard  men  handle  customers  as  indifferently  as  though  they 
were  so  many  sticks.  I  saw  a  yard  man  so  gruff,  so  de- 
cidedly unpleasant,  that  I  thought  the  customer  was  at 
fault  that  he  did  not  turn  on  his  heels.  If  I  were  paying 
my  money  I  wouldn't  stand  and  have  it  rubbed  into  me  by 
anybody. 


A  PILE  BINDER. 

The  cost  of  this  little  device  for  holding  the  tops  of 
piles  on  is  really  so  small  that  it  can  hardly  be  estimated. 
Any  man  around  a  yard  could  knock  together  an  armful 
of  them  in  no  time.  You  will  see  it  is  a  triangle,  except  that 
it  is  hardly  a  triangle.  I  have  forgotten  what  it  would  be 
called  in  geometry.  That  is  the  way  with  us.  We  deprive 
ourselves  of  wine  and  mushrooms  in  order  that  we  may  get 
through  school  or  college  and  then  industriously  forget 
nearly  everything  we  learned  there. 


238  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

This  triangle  shaped  "duphunny"  is  made  of,  say,  3-inch 
strips.  The  top  is  just  wide  enough  to  hold  a  2x12  from 
falling  over.  In  length  it  may  be  made  to  suit  you.  To  bind 
the  pile  place  the  2x12  piece  on  edge  across  the  top  of  it. 


'This  duphunny  is  made  of  3-inch  strips." 

hang  a  triangle  on  each  end,  pull  it  down  with  considerable 
force  and  immediately  over  the  base  of  the  triangle  thrust 
a  stick  between  the  courses  of  lumber. 


INADEQUATE  OFFICE  AND  YARD  HELP. 

The  boss  was  up  town  and  would  probably  be  gone  the 
rest  of  the  afternoon,  the  young  man  said  who  was  left  in 
charge.  This  young  man  was  a  nice  appearing  fellow, 
quick,  intelligent  and  gentlemanly,  but  I  could  see  he  had 
not  so  thoroughly  learned  the  business  that  he  could  wade 
through  it  as  he  will  be  able  to  a  year  or  two  hence.  The 
little  office  was  simply  overrun.  At  one  time  there  were 
three  men  waiting  to  pay  their  bills  j  a  farmer,  whose  team 
stood  on  the  platform  of  the  scales,  wanted  coal ;  another 
said  the  siding  he  bought  did  not  hold  out  and  he  wanted 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  239 

the  rest  of  it;  a  drayman  was  waiting  for  coal  and  your 
humble  servant  was  principally  engaged  in  toasting  his 
shins. 

The  young  man  was  attending  to  matters  as  fast  as  he 
could.  One  man  was  in  doubt  concerning  some  items  in 
his  bill,  and  of  course  checking  it  up  took  time.  The  farmer 
with  the  big  nose  said  if  he  couldn't  be  attended  to  he  would' 
go  to  one  of  the  other  yards.  You  have  probably  observed 
that  big  nosed  people  are  rather  independent.  Napoleon 
cared  little  how  many  battalions  of  men  he  sacrificed  if 
thereby  his  interests  were  furthered,  and  ever  since  his  time 
a  certain  class  of  noses  have  been  named  after  him ;  or  "for" 
him,  as  the  dude  literary  fellows  write  it  these  days.  A 
man  with  a  little  nose  will  do  most  anything  for  you  if  you 
only  take  him  right,  but  he  with  the  Napoleonic  beak  is  not 
going  to  stand  out  in  front  of  your  office  or  any  other  man's 
office  and  kick  his  toes  to  keep  them  warm,  in  the  meantime 
thinking  that  his  hogs  at  home  are  squealing  for  their  grub, 
when  he  can  drive  half  a  block  to  another  yard,  load  up  and 
be  off.  He  paid  cash,  too,  and  these  cash  customers,  nose 
or  no  nose,  are  more  or  less  independent. 

The  young  man  had  a  fair  grasp  of  the  situation.  When 
the  farmer  threatened  to  go  elsewhere  the  young  man  took 
the  weight  of  his  wagon  and  directed  him  to  bin  No.  3. 
Now  of  course  it  is  not  the  thing  to  ask  any  customer  to 
do  his  own  loading.  He  may  help  to  do  it  if  he  is  so  in- 
clined, but  when  he  is  the  whole  push  behind  the  scoop 
shovel  no  yard  man  can  expect  it  to  set  well  on  his  stomach. 
I  sat  right  where  I  could  see  the  farmer  do  the  loadirig 
and  he  filled  his  wagon  box  with  chunks  exclusively.  When 
such  chunks  could  not  be  reached  from  the  door  he  went 
inside  and  dug  them  out.  You  would  prefer  that  a  man 
would  not  do  that  in  your  bin,  wouldn't  you  ?  It  is  liable 
to  breed  discontent  in  the  minds  of  the  next  customers.  I 
guess  we  all  have  fine  coal  enough  in  our  soft  coal  bins. 
When  a  customer  gets  a  few  big  chunks  a  little  fine  coal 
does  not  make  so  much  of  a  showing,  but  if  there  are  no 


240  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

large  pieces  to  leaven  the  fine  coal — some  of  it  almost  pul- 
verized— it  looks  like  ornery  stuff.  Probably  you  or  I  would 
not  have  the  cheek  to  load  up  in  that  way;  still  it  would 
depend  on  the  size  and  shape  of  our  noses. 

The  farmer  paid  for  his  coal  and  drove  away,  evidently 
satisfied  with  his  bargain.  No  doubt  at  any  time  he  would 
exchange  a  little  muscular  effort  for  his  pick  from  a  soft 
coal  pile.  The  two  men  who  were  waiting  while  the  ac- 
count of  the  other  was  being  checked  up  were  uneasy.  When 
we  go  into  a  business  house  on  such  a  mission  as  that  it  is 
natural  to  think  that  somebody  around  the  premises  ought 
to  have  time  to  take  our  money.  I  helped  the  young  man 
out  all  I  could  by  encircling  the  waiting  men  with  my 
charms,  as  it  were,  though  I  put  my  foot  in  it  once  or  twice. 
One  of  the  men  looked  like  a  farmer  and  I  asked  him  how 
his  corn  was  this  year,  and  he  said  he  was  a  carpenter  and 
had  no  corn.  I  told  a  couple  of  campaign  stories,  one  a  rub 
on  the  democrats  and  the  other  a  rub  on  the  republicans,  so 
it  would  be  sure  to  hit  them  both.  And  thus  we  passed  the 
time  very  pleasantly  until  the  other  fellow  was  out  of  the 
way.  In  less  than  five  minutes  these  two  men  handed  in 
more  than  $300,  turned  up  their  coat  collars  and  departed. 

When  it  came  to  the  customer  who  was  short  on  siding 
the  young  man  was  not  perfectly  at  home  at  first.  The  boss 
himself  had  loaded  the  lumber  and  naturally  the  young  man 
was  not  anxious  to  give  the  customer  250  feet  and  then 
when  the  boss  came  in  tell  him  that  he  didn't  know  enough 
to  count  out  a  bill  of  siding.  I  could  see  that  plainly  enough. 
The  customer  could  not  have  been  more  positive  if  he  had 
tried.  He  had  put  the  siding  on  and  it  did  not  cover  the 
space !  He  was  asked  if  he  measured  it  before  it  was  laid 
and  he  said  he  did  not.  This  farmer  drove  a  fine,  large 
team,  wore  a  fur  overcoat  that  must  have  cost  as  much  as 
$50,  and^a  man  does  not  want  to  ruffle  extensively  the  feel- 
ings of  a  customer  who  is  fixed  like  that.  The  young  man 
did  the  only  thing  he  could  under  the  circumstances,  namely, 
said  he  -didn't  know  a  thing  about  it,  but  told  the  customer 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  241 

to  take  the  siding  along  and  the  boss  would  see  that  it  was 
made  all  right. 

The  drayman  loaded  his  own  coal  while  other  customers 
entertained  the  young  man  in  the  office.  It  was  hard  coal 
the  drayman  wanted,  however,  and  no  doubt  he  took  it  as  it 
came.  There  is  nothing  in  picking  the  largest  chunks  from 
hard  coal. 

In  the  experience  of  the  yard  this  may  have  been  an  "un- 
usually busy  day,  though  it  is  my  understanding  it  is  a  con- 
cern that  does  a  good  business.  The  young  man  did  not  act 
as  though  it  was  anything  out  of  the  ordinary  for  him  to 
hustle  along  alone  in  such  a  manner.  Of  course  it  is  not 
for  you  or  me  to  dictate  whether  this  lumberman  shall  have 
one  or  two  men  to  help  him,  but  to  a  man  looking  down 
from  the  ceiling  it  appears  as  though  he  was  running  short- 
handed  at  an  expense  that  he  couldn't  stand.  When  I  first 
went  to  the  office  it  was  vacant,  the  young  man  being  in 
the  yard.  One  man  came  in  and,  seeing  no  one  but  a  no- 
account  looking  fellow  sitting  behind  a  cigar  reading  a  news- 
paper, went  out.  He  wanted  something,  else  he  would  not 
have  been  there.  I  cannot  believe  that  is  the  way  to  run 
a  business.  Such  methods  do  not  apply  to  lumber  any  more 
than  they  apply  to  dry  goods  or  meat  markets.  Little  ne- 
glects to  customers  finally  sour  them ;  and,  beloved,  we  want 
to  keep  them  sweet.  It  is  impossible  to  keep  them  too  sweet. 
We  want  to  make  ourselves  and  our  business  methods  so 
attractive  that  customers  will  flock  around  us.  That  is  the 
way  to  get  trade  and  to  keep  it.  Any  other  methods  first 
or  last  get  the  knockout  blow  under  the  ear.  The  insig- 
nificant little  fly  that  hangs  around  the  sugar  bowl  should 
teach  us  a  lesson. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 
GETTING  OUT  MILL  WORK. 

"The  rush  is  over  now,"  the  yard  man  remarked,  "but 
I  wish  you  would  remind  the  sash  and  door  factories  that 
one  thing  necessary  for  them  to  do  is  to  estimate  promptly 
when  we  send  them  specifications.  If  not  satisfied  with 
the  bid  of  the  first  house  to  which  these  specifications  are 
submitted  we  must  try  again,  and  if  they  hang  fire  in  the 
factories  it  takes  a  good  while  to  reach  a  conclusion.  We 
can't  ask  the  men  in  these  factories  to  work  nights  and 
Sundays,  but  it  has  been  my  experience  that  some  of  them 
are  woefully  slow." 


"Some  of  them  are  woefully  slow." 

A  similar  complaint  I  have  heard  several  times.  It  is  a 
question,  however,  if  the  factories  could  be  speedy  enough 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  average  yard  man  in  this 
matter.  Suppose  I  am  to  furnish  a  house  bill  the  mill  work 
of  which  will  cost,  say,  $1,000.  The  furnishing  of  this  bill 
is  one  of  the  big  events  of  the  season  to  me.  I  may  not  sell 
four  such  bills  during  the  year.  I  want  to  get  at  the  denoue- 
ment, as  the  Frenchman  would  say,  in  short  order.  I  am 
hoping  that  if  I  mail  my  specifications  today  the  estimates 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  243 

may  be  returned  about  the  tbird  day,  notwithstanding  my 
letter  must  travel  a  hundred  miles  or  more  and  the 
answer  to  it  a  like  distance.  I  am  a  little  unreasonable  in 
this  expectation  and  of  course  slip  up  in  my  calculations. 
That  deal  is  a  big  thing  to  me,  but  it  isn't  going  to  stun  the 
factory  men ;  they  are  used  to  such  things.  They  get  bun- 
dles of  these  specifications.  The  proprietor  of  a  factory  told 
me  recently  they  had  sixty  sets  of  stairs  on  their  order  books. 
In  these  big  establishments  we  must  take  our  turn,  and 
sometimes  there  is  a  small  army  ahead  of  us. 

If  I  had  a  bill  of  mill  work  that  amounted  to  any  great 
sum  I  would  not  send  it  to  anybody.  I  would  ask  the  fac- 
tories to  send  their  men  to  me.  I  would  want  them  to  send 
men  who  knew  their  business,  too,  so  that  right  on  the 
ground  every  detail  could  be  settled.  If  this  is  not  done, 
at  some  stage  o*f  the  game  some  seemingly  little  insignifi- 
cant thing  is  liable  to  stick  its  nose  in  and  cause  trouble 
without  end.  Not  long  ago  I  looked  through  a  fine  resi- 
dence that  had  been  built  by  a  yard  man  for  his  home,  and 
he  told  me  how  little  concern  his  mill  work  was  to  him. 
Everything  went  together  as  though  fate  had  decreed  it, 
he  said.  Not  even  a  bit  of  molding  was  lacking.  To  start 
with  the  order  was  placed  with  an  Ai  factory,  and  then  the 
salesman  who  took  the  order  knew  his  business.  He  has 
been  a  practical  planing  mill  man,  knows  what  is  wanted 
and  in  what  shape  it  should  be  furnished.  I  know  salesmen 
who  can  detect  any  faulty  point  in  the  specifications  of  an 
architect.  That  is  the  kind  of  men  to  have  around  you. 
When  you  are  figuring  with  them  they  are  not  firing  their 
ideas  up  through  their  hats.  They  are  down  to  earth,  which 
is  an  excellent  place  for  any  of  us  to  be.  When  you  are 
dealing  with  a  good  house  and  a  competent  salesman  there 
is  not  a  reason  why  things  should  not  dovetail. 

I  like  these  inside  finish  salesmen ;  I  have  had  about  as 
good  times  with  some  of  them  as  a  fellow  can  reasonably 
expect  to  have  this  side  of  paradise,  but  not  every  one  of 
them  is  making  it  the  smoothest  possible  sailing  for  the 


244  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

builder.  Sometimes  they  innocently  prod  him  and  make  him 
frisk  like  a  wild  steer.  I  was  told  the  other  day  of  a  fine 
residence  that  was  going  up  and  everything  came  to  a  halt 
because  the  salesman  who  took  the  order  blundered.  The 
mill  work  came  on,  but  a  small  portion  of  the  bill  had  to  be 
refilled,  which  took  time.  In  a  busy  building  season  car- 
penters can't  hang  around  doing  nothing  and  pay  their  meat 
and  grocery  bills  on  anticipation,  so  in  this  case  the  car- 
penters went  elsewhere.  Then  when  the  revised  mill  work 
came  the  carpenters  didn't  come  with  it.  The  builder  got 
madder  than  hops,  the  contractor  got  mad,  and  all  because 
the  salesman  wasn't  "onto"  his  job.  When  we  slip  a  cog 
we  never  know  how  many  cogs  it  will  cause  to  slip  in  the 


"A  thief  breaks  in." 

machinery  of  others.  It  is  like  the  wave  which  keeps  on 
rolling,  rolling  away  from  the  agitation  caused  by  the  peb- 
ble. 

If  I  were  building  an  expensive  house  (of  which  there 
is  not  much  danger)  I  should  want  to  have  a  good  seance 
with  a  salesman  who  knew  the  ropes.  I  do  not  believe  a 
man  is  fitted  for  the  position  of  salesman  when  all  he  can 
do  is  meekly  and  blindly  to  follow  the  architect's  specifica- 
tions. He  ought  to  be  able  to  make  suggestions,  to  substi- 
tute, which  would  possibly  save  you  money  and  give  you  a 
better  looking  house  than  you  were  expecting  to  build.  In  a 
yard  man's  house  I  was  shown  a  set  of  stairs,  changes  in 
which  had  been  suggested  by  the  salesman  who  got  the 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  245 

order,  and  the  lumberman  was  enthusiastic  over  the  appear- 
ance of  them  as  compared  with  the  original  design.  Now, 
you  see  that  salesman  did  that  man  a  favor  that  will  be 
something  of  a  pull  on  future  orders. 

When  we  come  down  to  bottom  facts  there  are  a  great 
many  architects  whose  practicability  will  never  kill  them. 
They  have  studied  the  strength  of  materials,  have  learned 
to  draw,  know  how  a  plan  will  look  on  paper — and  that 
comes  near  telling  the  story.  You  couldn't  find  wings  on 
one  of  them;  therefore  they  are  going  to  make  mistakes 
like  all  the  rest  of  us.  I  have  heard  contractors  swearing 
about  their  plans  more  than  once.  I  would  first  want  a 
good  designing  architect  to  make  my  plans  and  then  a  com- 
petent salesman  to  lay  his  head  with  mine,  and  together  de- 
cide just  what  the  inside  finish  should  be.  I  believe  this 
would  give  me  a  better  looking  house  than  otherwise  I 
would  have  and  save  me  worry.  In  my  humble  opinion  any 
intelligent  young  man  who  would  serve  an  apprenticeship 
in  an  inside  finish  establishment,  or  even  in  any  old  planing 
mill,  preparatory  to  acting  as  salesman,  would  be  doing 
something  for  his  country. 

I  heard  of  a  little  kink  not  long  ago  that  may  be  new 
to  you.  A  yard  man  told  me  that  he  furnished  the  oak,  cy- 
press, yellow  pine  and  other  woods  for  all  the  mill  work  he 
had  done.  When  he  secures  a  job  he  selects  his  lumber, 
carries  it  to  the  local  factory  and  pays  for  having  it  put  into 
the  shape  he  wants  it.  He  knows  then  what  kind  of  lumber 
goes  into  a  job  and  he  thinks  that  by  furnishing  the  material 
he  keeps  an  extra  profit  in  the  family.  He  is  a  very  success- 
ful lumberman  and  he  wouldn't  be  pursuing  this  method 
year  after  year  unless  there  were  something  in  it. 

Next  year  when  the  building  season  shall  open  up  in  the 
red  hot  way  we  are  all  expecting  I  trust  that  the  sash  and 
door  men  will  hustle  some  things  a  little  faster  than  they 
have  been  doing  this  season,  and  that  the  yard  men's  pa- 
tience may  be  somewhat  lengthened.  What  we  want  is  to 
come  together  mutually,  all  as  happy  as  so  many  lambs. 


246  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

MAPLE  AND  BIRCH  FLOORING. 

The  veteran  dealer,  his  assistant  and  your  humble  ser- 
vant were  up  in  the  shed  trying  to  sort  out  a  pile  of  maple 
and  birch  flooring.  You  would  no  doubt  say  that  such 
combined  talent  would  be  able  to  do  that  simple  little  job 
on  the  run,  wouldn't  you  ?  The  cold  fact  remains,  however, 
that  having  concentrated  our  powerful  intellects  on  certain 
pieces  we  were  not  more  than  dead  sure  that  we  were  right. 
This  yard  man  had  received  a  shipment  of  the  two  kinds 
of  flooring,  they  were  mixed  and  the  thing  was  to  separate 
them.  The  yard  man  knew  I  was  coming  and  I  suppose  he 
thought  it  would  be  an  excellent  chance  to  find  out  how  little 
I  know. 

I  have  not  yet  seen  that  man  who  can  name  all  the  woods 
off  hand  simply  by  handling  small  samples  of  them.  Per- 
haps such  a  man  is  somewhere  and  if  so  I  would  like  to  see 
what  kind  of  bumps  there  are  on  his  head.  A  lumberman 
once  said  to  me  that  he  could  name  any  wood  and  was  in- 
clined to  laugh  at  the  idea  that  any  fellow  who  was  wrest- 
ling with  woods  all  the  time  should  feel  incompetent  to  do 
this.  But  you  know  that  talk  is  the  cheapest  thing  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  This  man  had  his  talking  spell  and  then 
when  it  came  to  action  he  met  his  Waterloo.  I  took  him 
to  the  banquet  hall  in  the  Auditorium  hotel,  Chicago,  and 
he  fell  down.  There  was  wood  used  in  profusion  in  a  large 
room  and  this  wood  the  lumberman  could  not  name.  Syc- 
amore, the  kind  of  wood  in  court,  was  newer  as  a  finish 
than  it  is  now,  which  undoubtedly  had  something  to  do  with 
throwing  the  man  off  the  track.  At  that  time  -sycamore 
was  regarded  as  a  very  plebeian  wood,  about  fit  for  plug 
tobacco  boxes,  and  he  was  not  expecting  to  find  it  in  one  of 
the  finest  rooms  in  the  United  States.  I  wish  that  the  re- 
tail men  who  stop  at  the  Auditorium  when  in  Chicago  would 
ask  to  see  the  banquet  hall  of  the  house,  so  they  may  know 
what  an  art  wood  sycamore  is  when  used  at  its  best.  It 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  247 

would  give  them  food  for  thought  that  as  ammunition  they 
might  advantageously  fire  at  a  customer  now  and  then. 

The  trio  up  in  the  shed  acted  on  the  principle  that  birch 
is  the  lighter  wood  of  the  two,  and  so  we  sorted  the  flooring^ 
more  by  the  sense  of  feeling  than  by  sight.  The  grain  of  a 
birch  and  that  of  a  maple  board  would  often  be  so  identical 
that  we  would  challenge  any  man  to  tell  which  was  which. 
Of  course  in  this  little  article  the  three  of  us  are  exposing 
our  ignorance  to  the  great,  critical  public,  but  it  is  for  a 
purpose.  There  are  yard  men  who  if  they  should  have  oc- 
casion to  order  maple  and  birch  flooring  from  one  concern 
might  save  themselves  trouble  by  asking  to  have  it  labeled 
before  it  is  sent  on  its  way. 

Not  many  years  ago  it  would  have  taken  a  search  war- 
rant to  find  birch  flooring  in  any  except  the  more  prominent 
large  town  yards  but  it  is  now  kept  in  stock  by  hundreds  of 
dealers.  The  list  of  articles  that  must  be  kept  by  the  up  to 
date  yard  man  is  gradually  increasing  in  numbers. 

A  yard  man  related  an  amusing  incident  in  connection 
with  the  introduction  of  maple  flooring  in  his  town.  "I  had 
just  received  a  lot  and  was  talking  it  to  a  man  of  means  who 
was  about  to  build  a  good  house,"  he  said.  "He  looked  it 
over  critically  while  I  was  enumerating  its  qualities  and  then 
broke  out.  'Maple!  hades!  Good  old  pine  is  good  enough 
for  me !'  That  same  man  was  talking  with  me  the  other  day 
about  maple  to  replace  his  'good  old  pine'  kitchen  floor.'' 


UNEVENNESS  OF  TRADE. 

A  half  dozen  of  us  were  in  the  writing  room  of  the  hotel 
and  when  there  was  a  lull  in  wagging  the  pens  some  of  the 
fellows  went  to  talking  about  trade.  A  man  who  handles 
fancy  goods  for  the  holidays  said  he  had  been  having  a  nice 
run  of  business.  Then  a  clothing  man  thumped  the  table 
with  his  knuckles  and  said  if  it  would  become  colder  he 
would  sell  more  goods. 


248  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

"How  do  you  find  trade?"  I  was  asked. 

"Haven't  sold  a  cent's  worth  in  three  months,"  I  replied. 

Just  then  I  had  placed  my  John  Hancock  to  a  letter  to 
my  best  girl  and  immediately  left  the  room.  They  no  doubt 
wondered  how  a  fellow  could  dress  so  well  and  sell  no  goods. 

Trade  has  been  nearly  as  spotted  in  the  lumber  line  as 
it  appeared  to  be  with  us  fellows  in  the  hotel.  But  let  us  not 
get  in  the  habit  of  thinking  that  all  the  towns  can  keep 
hustling  everlastingly.  Even  the  sea  is  at  times  calm.  If 


"Haven't   sold  a   cent's  worth." 

we  did  not  go  to  bed  and  rest  and  sleep  nights  there  would 
come  a  sudden  end  to  us.  Towns  must  also  have  a  breath- 
ing spell.  Those  places  which  have  been  quiet  this  season 
will  forge  ahead  the  next.  If  we  could  see  all  the  lumber 
made  into  buildings  that  the  lumbermen  of  the  country  are 
anxious  to  sell  in  the  next  twelve  months  the  area  of  the 
states  in  the  union  would  be  one  solid  city. 

Yard  men  are  restless  creatures  in  times  of  a  lull.    They 
are  unreasonably  restless.     A  dealer  recently  said  to  me, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  249 

"There  goes  the  last  load  of  an  $800  bill."  The  selling  and 
delivering  of  that  bill  cost  the  yard  man  little  time  compara- 
tively. When  he  got  right  down  to  business  it  was  probably 
sold  inside  of  sixty  minutes.  Then  it  went  out  in  great 
loads.  A  steady  business  like  that  would  make  millionaires 
of  us  all,  and  then  we  would  cease  to  be  happy  or  useful. 
When  a  man  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  clip  coupons  he  is  of 
little  more  benefit  to  the  world  than  a  telegraph  pole. 

Now  suppose  we  stand  around  the  grocery  and  dry 
goods  stores  of  our  neighbors  and  watch  them  for  a  while. 
We  see  them  selling  a  gallon  of  molasses  for  40  cents,  a  can 
of  oil  for  a  dime,  a  paper  of  pins,  calico  for  a  dress,  and  just 
think  how  long  it  takes  one  of  them  to  sell  $800  worth  of 
goods.  A  volume  of  business  that  you  would  do  in  an  hour 
they  are  a  week  in  doing.  Then  what  is  the  matter  that  you 
can't  take  it  easy  between  spells?  I  actually  believe  that 
the  lumber  world  is  full  of  retail  dealers  who  do  not  appre- 
ciate the  advantage  of  having  their  trade  thrown  at  them  in 
big  lumps.  Last  summer  I  hung  around  an  office  nearly 
an  entire  afternoon  and  the  yard  man  was  complaining1  there 
was  nothing  going  on,  yet  he  incidentally  remarked  that  he 
sold  $200  worth  of  lumber  that  morning.  No  doubt  his 
profits  would  foot  up  from  $30  to  $40  for  that  day,  and 
there  he  was  crying  for  more. 

Owing  to  the  very  nature  of  our  business  our  expecta- 
tions leap  all  bounds  of  reason.  We  want  the  earth,  and 
when  we  get  a  big  slice  of  it  we  begin  to  cry  for  the  moon. 
You  have  read,  "For  what  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain 
the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul?"  We  will  draw  it 
milder,  and  ask,  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  to  hoard  up 
riches  at  the  expense  of  his  health?  Then  comes  nervous 
prostration,  and  he  sees  devils  peering  into  his  face  even 
when  he  is  surrounded  by  sunshine.  The  last  days  of  that 
man  are  shorter  than  his  first,  and  a  thousand  times  less 
happy.  This  world — or  rather  the  people  of  it — are  running 
on  many  false  theories. 

If  we  do  not  enjoy  this  life  and  have  a  little  fun  as  we 


250  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

go  along,  when  will  we  enjoy  a  life?  Can't  tell,  can  you? 
I  have  no  confidence  whatever  in  any  man  who  prates  about 
playing  on  a  harp  of  a  thousand  strings  hereafter  when  he 
does  not  begin  playing  it  here.  Therefore,  beloved,  let  us 
not  fret  and  sweat,  and  break  ourselves  down  because  we 
are  unable  to  sell  big  bills  from  morning  till  night  the  year 
round.  We  know  we  have  got  'em ;  we  know  that  we  will 
sell  nearly  all  the  lumber  for  the  never-ending  improvements 
of  this  giant  country,  and  what  more  do  we  want? 


WAGON  STAKES. 

The  ordinary  stake  on  the  delivery  wagon  has  not  filled 
the  bill  for  the  reason  that  the  wagon  manufacturers  have 
gone  right  on  making  the  same  old  kind  of  stake,  no  mat- 
ter whether  the  wagon  was  to  be  used  for  hauling  lumber 
or  other  material.  They  have  done  this  for  the  reason  that, 
like  the  rest  of  the  world,  wagon  makers  are  sheep.  It  is 
surprising  how  many  sheep  there  are  even  among  those 
people  who  would  naturally  be  supposed  to  do  a  little  think- 
ing for  themselves  instead  of  following  others. 

No  wagon  maker,  so  far  as  I  have  learned,  has  ever 
evoluted  out  of  the  old  stake  rut.  As  the  great  granther 
made  wagon  stakes  so  must  his  descendants  forever  and 
ever.  In  the  lumber  world  the  improvements  which  have 
been  made  in  wagon  stakes  have  been  suggested  by  the  lum- 
bermen themselves.  Though  the  old-time  short  stake,  with 
the  annex  on  the  outside  of  it,  is  used  by  nine-tenths  of  the 
yard  men  of  the  country  it  is  a  failure  from  the  fact  that 
a  load  with  such  stakes  cannot  be  carried  up  evenly.  Hav- 
ing piled  to  the  top  of  the  permanent  stake  then  the  load 
must  jut  out  to  another  width.  To  overcome  this  difficulty 
there  are  yard  men  who  have  had  stakes  mortised  into  the 
bolster  in  such  a  way  they  can  be  removed.  When  this  is 
done  the  yard  man  has  several  sets  of  stakes,  each  set  to 
conform  to  the  size  of  the  load  it  is  .intended  to  haul. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


251 


Herewith  are  illustrated  two  stakes,  one  of  them,  the 
"built  up," being  common  in  certain  sections.  All  these  things 
go  by  sections.  In  certain  territory  covering  a  large  area 
it  would  be  as  easy  to  find  a  hen's  tooth  as  it  would  a  stake 


"Herewith  are  illustrated  two  stakes." 

of  this  character.  Having  seen  the  illustration,  it  is  easy  to 
make  the  stakes.  They  should  be  of  oak,  of  the  same  thick- 
ness as  the  permanent  stakes,  and  when  in  place  stand  about 
two  feet  above  them.  The  object  is,  of  course,  to  form  a 
straight  surface  against  which  to  pile. 

The  other  stake,  as  you  will  observe,  spreads  until  when 
it  is  as  high  as  the  wheel  it  is  only  one  inch  from  it.  It  is 
also  made  an  inch  higher  than  the  wheel.  At  the  top  it  is 
eight  inches  wide.  The  object  of  the  shape  of  this  stake  is 
that  lumber  can  be  easily  swung  on  it,  its  nearness  to  the 
wheel  preventing  a  board  from  dropping  between  them. 

In  the  "twentieth  century  stake,"  as  the  inventor  calls  it, 
the  socket,  which  is  nine  inches  long  from  the  bolster  up, 
is  of  solid  iron,  the  shell  being  five-sixteenths  of  an  inch 
thick.  The  width  lengthwise  of  the  bolster  is  five  and  three- 
quarters  inches  and  crosswise  four  inches.  The  hole  for  the 
stake  is  one  and  a  half  by  three  and  a  quarter.  The  bottom 
of  the  socket  is  let  into  the  bolster  for  a  little  way,  a  bolt 


252 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


passing  down  through  both  to  hold  it  in  place.  The  stake 
is  edged  with  hoop  iron  to  prevent  wearing.  A  small  hole 
should  be  drilled  through  the  shell  at  the  bottom  of  the 


"The  twentieth  century  stake." 

socket,  else,  when  the  wagon  has  stood  out  in  a  rain,  when 
the  stake  is  put  in  the  water  will  squirt  up  in  your  face. 

The  socket  was  first  made  of  cast  iron,  but  it  was  not 
strong  enough  and  malleable  iron  was  used.  The  cost  of  the 
stakes  was  65  cents  each. 


THE  TWO  KINDS. 

The  purely  commercial  tradesman  or  professional  man 
does  not  rank  m  the  first  class.  There  are  commercial  sur- 
geons who  would  cut  oft  your  leg  in  a  York  minute  for  the 
fee,  while  some  other  surgeon  who  was  inspired  by  a  higher 
motive  than  the  money  there  might  be  in  it  would  go  to 
work  and  save  the  leg.  You  have  doubtless  known  lawyers 
whose  sole  object  seemed  to  be  to  bring  cases  to  trial,  while 
there  are  others  who  will  advise  the  adjustment  of  differ- 
ences outside  of  the  court  room.  Except  as  an  example  to 
shun,  a  man  is  no  great  account  in  the  world  unless  he  car- 
ries his  conscience  into  business.  If  he  does  not  do  this  he 
becomes  a  quack,  a  swindler,  legally  or  otherwise. 

It  is  a  pitiful  day  for  us  when  we  cease  to  feel  an  in- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  253 

terest  in  the  welfare  of  others.  When  we  work  for  self 
alone — work  for  self  at  the  expense  of  treating  others  fairly 
and  honorably — as  sure  as  we  live  we  are  on  a  train  that 
will  run  us  into  the  ditch.  I  do  not  mean  necessarily  into 
the  financial  ditch,  and  I  hope  that  not  one  of  my  readers 
gages  his  success  wholly  by  the  money  he  is  making.  Money 
is  necessary — we  all  want  it  and  need  it — but  a  large  amount 
of  it  is  decidedly  less  essential  than  are  some  other  things. 
In  the  eyes  of  the  world  we  can't  cut  a  swell  on  these  other 
things  as  we  can  on  money,  but  they  will  stay  by  us  longer. 
When  our  hands  are  getting  so  cold  and  palsied  that  we 
couldn't  pick  up  a  thousand  dollar  bill  if  it  was  right  by  us 
on  the  bed  these  other  things  will  stand  by  us.  I  once  knew 
an  honest,  kind  hearted  man  who,  owing  to  ill  health  and 
bad  luck,  was  forced  to  spend  his  closing  days  in  an  alms- 
house.  But  he  didn't  complain  and  dump  around.  "I  will 
not  be  here  long,"  he  said ;  "pretty  soon  I  will  go  on  my 
way/'  A  cheap  coffin  enclosed  the  old  man's  remains,  and 
they  were  buried  on  a  knoll  oAit  in  the  field  with  nothing  but 
a  painted  board  to  mark  the  grave,  but  I  believe  the  man 
proper  went  on  his  way  to  such  riches  as  we  all  may  covet. 

We  must  all  the  time  have  an  eye  out  for  the  good  of 
our  customers.  That  is  the  only  way  to  feel  assured  that 
we  can  sleep  with  a  decent  fellow  every  night,  and  eat  with 
him,  and  associate  with  him  the  livelong  day.  We  can  easily 
get  away  from  a  mean  man  provided  that  mean  man  is  not 
ourself,  but  if  it  is  ourself  there  is  the  stinking  stuff  right 
under  our  nose  all  the  time. 

In  an  office  a  man  came  in  to  buy  coal.  ""Send  me  up 
two  tons  of  the  kind  I  had  before,"  said  he.  Now  you  see 
that  was  an  easy  order  to  fill — no  talking  over  selling  it; 
simply  haul  the  coal  up  and  in  due  time  get  the  money. 

"I  want  to  send  you  another  kind  of  coal  today,  for  I 
believe  it  is  better,"  said  the  yard  man. 

"Haven't  you  the  other?"  was  asked. 

"Yes,  I  have  the  same  thing,  not  much  of  it  though,  and 


254 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


if  you  insist  on  it  you  shall  have  it,  but  I  can  give  you  a 
better  coal  than  that." 

Then  he  explained  the  difference.  I  know  a  little  about 
coal  myself,  enough  to  know  that  this  man  was  giving  it 
to  the  customer  as  straight  as  a  chalk  line.  This  customer 
fairly  blew  in,  he  was  so  breezy  and  up  and  dressed.  He 
seemed  to  be  in  a  hurry  to  catch  a  train.  But  when  the  yard 
man  began  to  talk  about  a  better  coal  he  had  plenty  of  time 
to  listen.  We  always  do  have  plenty  of  time  when  our  own 


"Two  tons  of  the  kind  I  had  before." 

interests  are  at  stake.  Now  I  would  not  hesitate  to  bet  you 
$4  that  that  man  will  continue  to  buy  his  coal  of  that  dealer. 
He  is  no  blockhead,  and  I  know  well  enough  he  went  away 
from  that  office  thinking  that  the  yard  man  had  tried  to  do 
him  a  favor.  Wouldn't  you?  In  all  these  matters  let  us 
reason  from  our  own  standpoint  and  we  will  get  it  nearly 
right.  This  is  simply  one  little  incident  to  show  how  easy 
it  is  to  help  our  customers  along  at  the  same  time  we  are 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  255 

helping  ourselves.  If  we  would  only  bring  ourselves  to  know 
it  we  would  find  it  does  not  cost  half  so  much  to  do  a  little 
good  in  the  world  as  we  go  along  as  we  might  think  it  did. 


REASONS  FOR  THANKS. 

We  will  not  meet  again  before  Thanksgiving,  so  let  us 
lay  our  heads  together  and  decide  on  some  things  for  which 
we  should  return  thanks.  Personally  I  do  not  think  much 
of  the  ofrkial  species  of  thankfulness,  for  without  any  hint 
from  the  president  of  the  United  States  or  anybody  else 
our  hearts  should  be  floating  in  the  atmosphere  of  thank- 
fulness the  whole  time.  But  we  forget  and  neglect.  In- 
gratitude in  all  of  us  is  bigger  than  a  wolf.  I  should  like 
to  see  one  man  refined  in  the  crucible  of  thought,  love  and 
sorrow  until  he  had  reached  his  possibilities.  What  a  mag- 
nificent creature  he  would  be ! 

What  if  the  president  should  appoint  a  day  for  us  to 
love  our  wives  and  children  ?  Wouldn't  we  say,  "Why,  what 
is  the  matter  with  you,  old  man :  don't  we  love  them  all  the 
time?"  And  then  the  formal  way  in  which  it  is  done!  We 
all  have  our  opinions  and  ideas,  you  know,  but  I  can't  be- 
lieve that  when  a  man,  by  request  of  the  president  of  the 
L^nited  States,  closes  his  eyes  and  says  thanks,  they  go 
higher  than  the  top  of  the  chimney.  Gratitude  must  come 
from  the  heart  to  be  of  value.  If  it  doesn't  hail  from  that 
organ  it  doesn't  lack  much  of  being  bogus.  My  grand- 
father used  to  say  that  "lip  service"  was  a  delusion.  We 
too  often  act  on  the  principle  that  we  can  fool  the  Almighty, 
just  as  we  fool  the  people  with  whom  we  associate.  We  like 
to  hypnotize  our  neighbors  and  have  them  think  that  we 
were  gotten  up  after  a  special  pattern ;  that  we  are  all  wool 
and  a  yard  wide,  while  every  minute  of  the  time  we  know 
there  are  cotton  threads  running  through  us  in  every  direc- 
tion. 

Now  there  are  those  best  girls  of  ours.     They  come  a 


256 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


million  times  nearer  being  angels  than  we  are.  How  good 
we  led  them  to  think  we  would  always  be  to  them  when  we 
were  courting  them  and  giving  them  candy  and  taffy.  You 
probably  remember  when  they  would  sit  on  our  knees — 
that  is,  if  we  considered  that  way  of  sitting  "good  form," 
and  the  most  of  us  did — we  would  strenuously  object  when 
they  suggested  they  were  heavy,  and  cling  to  them  as  to  an 
anchor  of  hope.  Then  we  hitched  up  and  how  faithful  and 
good  they  have  been  all  the  years  since.  The  hands  of  the 
most  of  them  bear  the  marks  of  work.  Gray  hairs  have 
come  into  their  blond  or  raven  locks.  The  girlish  spright- 


"They  would  sit  on  our  knees." 

liness  has  gone,  and  their  feet  have  become  heavier.  Dur- 
ing this  period  of  transformation  they  have  been  doing, 
doing,  doing  all  the  time  for  us.  Do  we  tell  them  we  ap- 
preciate it  all?  Do  we  take  them  in  our  arms  and  let  them 
know  that  our  love  has  not  cooled  ?  I  am  fearful  all  of  us 
do  not.  If  those  dear  forms  were  stretched  on  an  under- 
taker's board  in  the  darkened  parlor  tonight,  there  are  those 
of  us  who  would  give  our  lumber  yards  if  the  deaf  ears 
could  only  hear  the  words  which  we  would  pour  into  them 
— words  mostly  which  we  have  neglected  to  speak.  So  one 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


257 


thing  to  do  is  to  be  thankful  to  our  wives.  Early  Thanks- 
giving morning  give  them  a  hug  and  kiss  that  will  so  aston- 
ish them  that  they  will  fall  down.  Keep  this  up,  mix  turkey 
and  cranberry  sauce  with  it,  and  if  you  do  not  say  it  has 
been  a  pink  of  a  holiday  you  may  kick  me.  At  first  our 
wives  may  think  it  necessary  to  have  a  commission  of 
lunacy  sit  on  us,  but  they  will  get  over  it  after  a  little. 


"In  the  atmosphere  of  thankfulness." 

Let  us  be  thankful  that  we  are  a  great,  prosperous  na- 
tion. Every  man  of  us  wants  to  get  it  out  of  his  head  that 
the  success  of  one  clique  of  politicians  or  another  is  going 
to  down  this  country.  We  are  the  people ;  we  do  the  work 
and  pay  the  freight,  and  if  these  scheming  politicians  who 
suck  the  public  teat  pull  it  so  it  hurts  us  too  much  we  are 
big  enough  to  rise  up  and  wipe  the  ground  with  them,  and 


258  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

we  will  do  it,  too.  Every  party  knowingly  harbors  bosses, 
demagogs  and  barnacles,  but  they  mustn't  get  to  fooling 
with  the  people  too  much.  My  faith  is  in  the  people,  not 
in  the  office  seekers  who  go  howling  up  and  down  the  land 
peddling  sophistry  and  belittling  everybody  who  stands  in 
their  way  to  a  life  of  little  work,  "glory"  and  big  pay.  Not- 
withstanding we  may  cuss  the  politician,  let  us  be  thankful 
for  our  magnificent,  grand  and  glorious  country.  Let's 
drink  to  that  country  and  pick  a  turkey  bone  to  its  con- 
tinued prosperity. 

Then  we  will  be  thankful  for  the  business  we  are  in. 
It  is  the  best  business  going.  It  is  a  healthy  business ;  a 
business  that  a  man  can  follow  and  still  look  upon  himself 
as  a  man.  A  business  that  if  it  should  come  to  a  halt  the 
improvements  of  the  whole  country  would  halt.  It  is  an 
honest  business  regardless  of  the  character  of  any  man  who 
may  be  following  it.  It  is  not  like  selling  gin  or  shoddy 
clothing.  It  is  different  from  practicing  law  as  some  men 
practice  it,  or  preaching  as  some  men  preach.  It  is  highly 
respectable  and  thoroughly  essential.  We  should  be  thank- 
ful we  are  engaged  in  such  a  business,  and  let  us  pick  the 
gobbler's  neck  to  its  success. 

And  above  all  let  us  be  thankful  that  we  are  alive — that 
we  were  born — that  stretching  away  before  us  is  a  path  lead- 
ing to  heights  of  which  we  cannot  conceive ;  to  God  the 
giver  of  all;  for  children,  love,  friendship,  health,  plenty, 
peace  of  mind;  for  the  birds,  air,  sunshine,  aye  and  for 
clouds  and  storms.  If  on  Thanksgiving  morning  we  begin 
returning  thanks  and  keep  it  up  all  day  and  then  continue 
until  our  lamp  of  life  is  snuffed  out  they  cannot  be  too  many 
nor  too  hearty. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  259 

PICKING  OVER  STOCK. 

There  are  people  who  always  want  the  best  without  pay- 
ing proportionately  for  it.  We  have  seen  men  who  could  go 
into  a  store  and  without  a  blush  on  their  cheeks  pick  out 
the  biggest  hen's  eggs.  This  desire  is  natural  enough — 
they  want  to  get  the  most  they  can  for  their  money — but 
at  the  same  time  the  dealer  has  an  interest  to  subserve.  It 
is  for  the  run  of  his  goods  on  which  the  tradesman  sets  a 
price,  and  when  a  purchaser  gets  better  than  this  he  should 
expect  to  pay  for  the  privilege. 

We  all  know  there  is  a  pick  to  be  had  in  lumber.  Take 
any  grade  and  there  is  a  choice  in  the  boards.  Some  of  them 
are  better  than  others.  There  are  buyers  who  know  this  well 
enough  and  if  permitted  to  do  so  they  will  act  on  that  knowl- 
edge. Especially  does  it  please  the  farmer  to  have  piles  of 
lumber  picked  over  for  him  in  order  that  he  may  have  the 
best.  A  yard  man  once  said  to  me,  "I  have  farmer  cus- 
tomers who  expect  this  state  of  things,  but  I  always  make 
the  selections,  and  when  we  are  through  I  don't  believe  they 
have  any  more  than  a  fair  run  of  the  lumber."  He  pro- 
jected a  smile  that  I  understood  as  meaning  that  he  could 
play  hocus  pocus  with  them. 

I  was  recently  in  a  yard  of  good  size  in  which  a  good 
deal  of  this  picking  had  been  carried  on,  and  picking  in 
earnest,  too.  The  farmers  understood  they  would  be  given 
the  best  boards  in  the  piles.  Of  course  this  pleased  them, 
but  when  it  became  known  there  were  others  it  did  not 
please.  As  soon  as  the  town  people,  particularly  the  con- 
tractors, got  an  inkling  of  it  they  rebelled.  They  said  they 
were  not  going  to  take  the  skim  milk  and  permit  the  farmers 
to  have  the  cream,  and  some  of  them  went  elsewhere  to  buy? 
their  stuff.  The  trade  of  the  yard  was  injured  to  just  that 
extent.  I  cannot  swear  that  the  yard  man  is  aware  how  this 
picking  business  is  reacting  on  him,  as  there  are  phases  of 
some  men's  business  which  are  better  understood  by  out- 
siders than  by  themselves.  There  is  hardly  a  week  passes 


26o  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

but  I  wish  that  some  dealer  could  see  himself  as  others  see 
him.  And  I  guess  if  we  all  could  do  that  we  would  see 
plenty  of  holes  in  ourselves  to  be  soldered  up. 

"I  am  perfectly  willing  that  a  customer  should  pick  his 
lumber,  but  he  must  pay  me  for  it,"  was  the  testimony  of  a 
yard  man.  "If  he  pick  over  a  pile  so  that  what  is  left  should 
by  rights  go  into  a  lower  grade  he  must  pay  me  the  differ- 
ence in  price  between  those  grades  for  what  is  left.  ' 

There  would  be  mighty  little  picking  if  every  dealer 
should  follow  this  man's  plan.  As  it  is  I  hardly  think  there 
is  much  of  it,  but  occasionally,  you  know,  there  is  a  fellow 
who  appears  to  be  built  on  abnormal  lines,  and  we  must 
look  for  him  to  do  abnormal  things.  When  we  expect  the 
same  thing  of  all  people  we  will  come  out  in  our  calcula- 
tions at  the  little  end  of  the  horn.  Recently  I  saw  a  yard 
man  climb  up  and  down  forty  feet  of  ladder  and  pull  over 
his  piles  of  uppers  in  search  of  a  board  from  which  a  pros- 
pective customer  wanted  a  piece  twenty-eight  inches  long. 
He  looked  and  looked  and  looked,  but  didn't  find  it.  The 
average  carpenter  could  have  found  sufficient  lumber  with 
which  to  finish  a  lo-room  house,  but  there  was  not  a  piece 
there  good  enough  for  the  fellow  who  was  looking.  This 
man  was  finiky  and  really  did  not  know  what  he  did  want. 
That  which  pleased  me,  however,  was  to  see  the  yard  man 
descend  to  earth  as  calm  as  a  May  morning.  From  his 
appearance  you  would  think  the  man  did  him  a  favor  by 
coming  to  his  yard  and  asking  him  to  rummage  through 
pile  after  pile  of  lumber  with  a  prospect  of  selling  a  piece 
of  board  twenty-eight  inches  in  length.  That  was  the  way 
to  bring  him  there  the  second  time,  however,  and  possibly 
the  second  time  he  would  want  enough  lumber  to  build  a 
barn.  How  things  will  turn  out  none  of  us  know  until 
they  do  turn  out. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 
LOCATING  ON. TRACK. 


261 


In  a  busy  little  burg  that  has  great  promise  of  growth  a 
yard  man  had  stuck  his  yard  off  in  the  edge  of  the  town  on  a 
railway  track  under  the  impression  that  lumber  could  be 
more  advantageously  handled  in  such  a  location.  He  had 
spent  some  money  in  building  sheds  and  an  office,  and,  to  be 
frank,  I  felt  sorry  for  him,  for  I  knew  he  was  a  little  behind 
the  up-to-date  practice,  else  he  would  not  have  done  it.  I 
would  rather  see  a  man  feel  good  than  bad  any  time,  so  I 
didn't  suggest  to  him  that  in  all  probability  he  had  made  a 
mistake  in  locating,  which  in  after  years  he  would  regret. 


"The   free  gift   of  an   elephant." 

It  appears  very  liberal  on  the  part  of  a  railway  company  to 
offer  yard  room,  minus  rent,  but  we  should  be  a  little  careful 
how  we  accept  the  free  gift  of  an  elephant,  for  after  a  little 
he  is  liable  to  eat  his  own  head  off,  and  ours  too. 

There  is  another  point  in  connection  with  a  railroad  loca- 
tion which  perhaps  is  not  considered  by  every-  yard  man. 
I  have  known  the  complications  growing  out  of  such  a  loca- 
tion to  be  a  thorn  in  the  flesh.  What  do  you  suppose  a  rail- 
road corporation  is  going  to  give  a  lumberman  yard  facili- 
ties for?  For  fun?  Not  exactly.  It  thinks  it  will  place 
that  lumberman  under  obligations  to  it,  and  expects  to  get 


262  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

his  business  as  against  any  competing  road  that  may  reach 
the  same  point.  There  are  yard  men  who  would  pick  up 
their  traps  in  a  York  minute  and  make  themselves  scarce 
on  railroad  land  if  they  saw  their  way  clear  to  do  so.  When 
a  railroad  pats  your  back  it  implies  that  it  expects  you  will 
show  favors  in  return.  That  is  human  nature  and  the  way 
it  is  looked  at  the  world  over.  If  there  are  two  or  more 
roads  running  into  a  town  you  do  not  want  one  of  them  to 
have  a  mortgage  on  you.  It  may  be  necessary  to  put  a 
mortgage  on  your  property,  but  for  pity  sake  keep  yourself 
clear  of  railroad  encumbrance. 

If  this  yard  man  I  am  speaking  of,  instead  of  going  out 
on  the  railroad  track,  had  camped  as  near  the  center  of  the 
town  as  he  could,  put  up  nice  looking  sheds  and  office,  and 
if  he  did  not  feel  disposed  to  build  a  closed  shed  fenced  his 
yard  in  a  tasty  way,  and  kept  his  piles  trim  and  neat,  he 
simply  would  have  commanded  the  attention  of  every 
farmer  who  came  to  the  town  to  buy  his  supplies.  That 
farmer,  having  hitched  his  team,  could  step  as  easily  into 
the  lumber  office  as  he  could  into  a  grocery  store.  As  it  is, 
the  farmer  must  tramp  off  down  the  railroad  track,  for  very 
likely  if  he  has  lively  horses  he  would  prefer  not  to  drive 
them  down  where  the  engines  are  switching  and  whistling. 
Within  a  month  I  saw  a  wagon  being  loaded  in  an  un fenced 
yard  on  the  prairie  by  a  railroad  track,  and  a  freight  train 
coming  along,  the  horses  began  to  prick  up  their  ears,  the 
farmer  caught  them  by  the  bits,  and  they  fairly  churned 
him  up  and  down  in  an  effort  to  break  away.  There  the 
team  danced,  all  loading  suspended  until  the  train  had  got 
out  of  sight  and  hearing.  Have  you  an  idea  that  such  an 
experience  would  be  a  magnet  that  would  draw  the  farmer 
with  his  colts  to  that  yard  again  ? 

Another  consideration  :  What  do  you  think  might  have 
been  a  future  result  if  this  yard  man  had  located  in  the  cen- 
ter of  town  ?  His  real  estate  would  have  increased  in  value 
right  along,  and  some  fine  morning  he  would  be  able  to  sell 
out  at  a  profit  that  would  make  him  laugh.  When  a  yard 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  263 

is  located  a  distance  from  a  railroad  track  I  don't  believe 
there  are  many  who  pay  more  than  15  cents  a  thousand  to 
have  their  lumber  moved  from  the  car  to  the  piles,  and  this, 
too,  when  the  yard  man  hires  his  hauling.  When  it  is  done 
with  his  own  team  it  matters  little  whether  the  distance  is 
ten  rods  or  a  mile. 


THE  VIRTUE  OF  RELAXATION. 

I  was  sorry  I  could  not  see  the  yard  man,  but  when  told 
his  mission  away  from  home  I  said,  "By  jinks,  that's  good. 
I  wish  every  lumberman  in  the  United  States  could  break 
away  from  business  for  an  even  two  months."  This  man 
is  at  the  lake,  as  a  member  of  some  outing  club,  and  will 
stay  there  off  and  on,  principally  off,  for  another  month. 
His  business  was  running  along  as  usual  instead  of  going 
to  smash  as  so  many  yard  men  think  their  business  will  if 
they  leave  it  for  a  while. 

The  man  who  sells  lumber  at  retail  has,  as  a  rule,  a  good 
deal  of  time  on  his  hands.  By  a  large  majority  business  in 
a  yard  does  not  keep  right  on  without  a  break  from  morn- 
ing till  night.  It  is  not  like  selling  tea,  sugar,  needles  and 
thread.  "I  was  in  the  general  mercantile  business  at  one 
time,"  said  a  yard  man,  "and  when  I  made  the  change  I 
thought  I  was  loafing.  I  used  to  keep  my  store  open  every 
night  until  10  o'clock,  and  often  I  would  find  it  necessary  to 
open  up  Sunday.  I  would  go  to  bed  as  tired  as  a  dog.  I 
don't  know  a  business  that  is  better  adapted  to  a  man  who 
is  getting  old  and  a  little  lazy  than  the  lumber  business." 

"I  sold  a  good  barn  bill  this  morning,"  said  another 
dealer,  and  though  I  was  in  his  office  for  three  hours  not  a 
customer  showed  his  face. 

"Why  I  like  this  line  of  trade  better  than  any  other  is 
that  at  5  o'clock  I  can  close  my  yard,  and  put  in  my  evenings 
as  I  see  fit."  was  the  way  another  put  it. 

The  advocates  of  everlasting  staying  at  home  might  say 
that  the  retail  lumberman  who  has  so  much  time  to  hold 
down  chairs  does  not  need  a  vacation,  Right  there  is  where 


264  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

they  are  off  their  feet.  The  cold  fact  is  that  not  one  in  a 
thousand  of  us  is  being  killed  by  overwork.  Something 
besides  the  effect  of  work  is  preying  upon  our  vitality.  I 
don't  know  any  yard  men  who  are  working  themselves  to 
death.  Worry  is  telling  on  some  of  them,  but  that  is  an- 
other thing.  When  a  man  opens  up  his  place  of  business 
at  seven,  and  often  at  eight,  in  the  morning,  has  anywhere 
from  two  to  eight  hours'  leisure  during  the  day,  and  shuts 
his  office  door  at  five  or  six  in  the  evening,  if  he  is  dying 
it  is  something  besides  hard  work  that  is  taking  him  off. 

But  we  want  a  change  from  that  old  humdrum  life — 
that  is  what  we  want.  We  want  to  break  the  monotony,  and 
come  back  feeling  that  life  is  more  endurable.  We  want 
to  mix  with  people  so  as  to  know  how  thankful  we  should 
feel  that  we  are  so  much  better  off  than  thousands  of  others. 
.  The  other  evening  a  half  dozen  of  us  sat  on  the  hotel 
porch,  and  an  agricultural  implement  salesman  gave  a  little 
talk  on  love  and  marriage.  "Some  people  take  pleasure  in 
rading  the  traveling  man,"  he  said.  "They  would  make 
him  out  as  tough  as  that  steak  we  had  for  supper.  But  I'll 
just  bet  any  man  a  sulky  plow  that  the  percentage  of  di- 
vorces among  the  traveling  men  is  smaller  than  that  of  any 
other  class,  due  to  the  fact  that  absence  keeps  the  spark  of 
love  alive.  WThen  we  go  home  we  are  glad  to  see  our  wives 
and  they  are  glad  to  see  us.  I  don't  believe  any  woman 
could  be  with  me  all  the  time  and  put  up  with  my  danged 
mean  ways !"  We  laughed  at  such  oddity ;  still  every  man 
there  no  doubt  felt  that  the  implement  salesman  was  touch- 
ing somewhere  near  bottom,  and  personally  my  mind  dallied 
with'  those  joyous  moments  when,  ariving  home  from  my 
trips,  I  meet  my  best  girl  at  the  door  and  salute  her  with 
smacks  which  sound  like  cannon  crackers. 

There  are  several  things  to  take  into  account  when  con- 
sidering the  vacation  problem.  The  expense  stands  in  the 
way  with  many,  they  say.  They  think  so,  straight  enough, 
but  six  months  from  now,  from  a  financial  standpoint  do 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  265 

you  think  they  would  know  the  difference?     Not  once  in 
a  thousand  times. 

Here  is  one  of  the  greatest  arguments,  however :  We 
are  in  possession  of  this  wondrous  body,  on  the  condition 
of  which  largely  depends  our  success  and  happiness,  and 
when  that  body  is  gone  we  don't  know  as  we  will  have  an- 
other right  away.  None  of  us  takes  any  too  good  care  of  it. 
I  have  an  old  fiddle  in  the  house  that  is  kept  tenderly 
wrapped  in  flannel  that  all  moisture  may  be  excluded,  yet 
today  in  a  hard  rainstorm  I  was  out  in  my  shirtsleeves  try- 
ing to  save  a  chicken  from  drowning  that  would  not  sell 
for  5  cents.  I  am  even  better  to  my  old  black  cow  than  I 
am  to  myself.  And  she  is  better  to  herself  than  I  am  to 
myself,  for  when  she  has  eaten  enough  she  quits ;  when  she 
has  drank  enough  she  quits,  and  when  tired  she  seeks  the 
shade  of  the  tree  and  rests.  In  many  respects  the  brutes 
shame  us. 


PRICE  LISTS. 

The  great  majority  of  things  are  differently  considered 
by  different  people.  Even  the  dollar  which  bears  on  the 
face  of  it  the  value  of  100  cents  is  thought  more  highly  of 
by  some  than  by  others.  Take  my  case,  for  instance :  Here 
at  midnight  I  am  clicking  this  communication  off  on  the 
old  writing  machine.  What  for?  For  the  dollars  that  it 
will  bring  me.  Which  does  not  prove  that  I  love  the  dollar 
so  well  that  in  order  to  make  it  I  never  sleep,  but  that  I  have 
loved  it  less  than  has,  say,  my  neighbor  across  the  way, 
who  for  two  hours  has  been  peacefully  snoring  on  his  curled 
hair  mattress.  He  can  afford  to  snore.  He  can  spare  the 
time  to  do  it.  He  has  made  his  dollars  and  has  clung  to 
them  with  the  grip  of  a  dentist's  forceps.  He  is  not  obliged 
to  sit  up  nights  and  make  more  of  them  in  order  that  he 
may  eat. 

Just  for  the  fun  of  the  thing  the  other  night  when  all 
was  still  and  calm  I  roughly  estimated  how  much  money 


266  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

I  had  earned  since  striking  out  in  the  world,  and  the  amount 
fairly  staggered  me.  I  said  to  my  best  girl :  "Look  at  that ! 
See  where  we  might  have  been  if  we  had  only  skinned 
through!"  She  didn't  say  a  word,  but  she  looked  over 
where  the  boys  were  asleep  on  the  sofa,  side  by  side,  each 
face  to  her  a  perfect  poem,  and  there  was  not  a  gleam  in 
her  eye  for  a  dollar. 

Not  long  ago  I  received  an  invoice  of  books  and  a  neigh- 
bor happened  in  when  they  were  opened.  He  did  not  seem 
to  know  Balzac  from  Nebuchadnezzar,  therefore  Balzac 
did  not  interest  him  a  whit;  and  when  he  was  handed  a 
work  on  the  latest  research  in  astronomy  he  said  it  was  "a 
pretty  book."  So  it  goes.  A  dollar  is  of  value  to  one  man 
for  the  dollar's  sake,  while  to  another  it  is  of  value  for  what 
it  will  buy.  Still  I  have  my  old  black  cow  clear  and  above 
board,  several  fiddles,  more  books  to  revel  among  than  a 
giant  could  lift,  and  recollections  of  life  and  friends  that  I 
wouldn't  swap  for  all  the  coal  oil  that  old  man  Rockefeller 
ever  owned  or  ever  will  own.  I  tell  you  what  I  rejoice  over 
about  as  much  as  anything,  and  that  is  that  I  was  born. 

The  price  list  shares  in  this  irregularity  of  estimation. 
It  passes  muster  with  a  few  and  the  others  take  it  for  what 
it  is  worth.  It  is  a  necessity — I  don't  believe  we  can  deny 
that.  If  nothing  more  it  serves  as  an  advertising  medium. 
The  wholesale  dealer  who  sends  out  a  price  list  at  the  same 
time  reminds  the  yard  man  to  whom  it  is  mailed  that  he 
(the  wholesale  dealer)  is  still  on  deck.  There  are  retail 
dealers  by  the  hundreds  who  claim  that  price  lists  are  of  no 
value  insomuch  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  figures  do 
not  correspond  with  the  actual  prices  at  which  lumber  is 
sold.  It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  their  position  is  hardly 
well  taken.  They  would  miss  the  lists.  Should  no  more 
come  to  them  they  would  feel  lonesome.  Admitting  that 
quoted  prices  are  not  the  ruling  ones,  they  are  something 
of  a  guide  nevertheless.  Were  it  not  for  them  we  would 
not  know  so  well  how  much  to  beat  the  traveling  salesman 
down  with  our  stuffed  clubs.  Did  we  receive  no  lists  we 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


267 


would  be  obliged  to  visit  the  markets  to  see  how  the  pulse 
of  the  wholesale  men  was  beating.  That  is  what  a  price  list 
is — the  pulse  of  the  wholesale  market.  Or  we  may  call  it 
the  mainspring  of  a  watch;  but  there  is  generally  a  regu- 
lator attached  to  it,  and  that  regulator  is  the  traveling  sales- 
man. 

Last  fall  I  was  in  an  office  when  a  price  list  was  taken 
from  an  envelope.  At  that  time  the  lumber  barons  couldn't 
boost  lumber  fast  enough.  It  would  have  suited  them  if 


"Sent   it  among  the   stars." 

they  could  have  exploded  dynamite  under  it  and  sent  it  up 
among  the  stars  somewhere.  This  yard  man  looked  the 
list  over,  remarked  it  was  pretty  high,  "but  before  I  buy, 
which  I  must  soon,  I  will  wait  until  So-and-so  comes  along 
and  see  what  he  says  about  it/'  he  concluded.  So-and-so  is 
a  salesman  and  really  that  little,  and  you  might  call  it  a 
trifling,  incident  impressed  me  as  much  as  any  one  thing 
ever  did  with  the  benefit  a  salesman  may  be  to  his  customers 
and  the  extent  to  which  some  retail  men  rely  on  the  boys 
who  sell  them  their  lumber. 


268  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

There  are  plenty  of  yard  men  who  would  like  the  list 
to  represent  to  a  nicety  the  price  at  which  lumber  is  selling. 
They  don't  like  to  see  a  list  posing  as  a  price  standard  and 
at  the  same  time  have  a  reputation  that  will  rival  Gulliver's. 
Then  there  are  dealers  who  want  quite  the  reverse  of  all 
this.  One  of  them  recently  said:  "I  hope  the  wholesale 
men  will  keep  up  the  list.  Carpenters  and  contractors  get 
these  lists  and  it  is  not  good  policy  to  put  low  lists  in  their 
hands  or,  in  fact,  any  lists  which  represent  the  actual  selling 
price  of  lumber.  If  the  yard  men  buy  from  $i  to  $2  off  the 
list,  all  right.  I  would  have  the  list  high  for  effect.  Then 
if  the  carpenters  and  contractors  get  hold  of  it  they  don't 
know  to  a  dead  certainty  what  our  stuff  costs  us,  as  they 
would  were  the  list  accurate.  Now -suppose  you  want  to 
buy  a  watch  and  ga  over  to  your  jeweler's.  He  prices  you 
a  watch  and  you  hang  out  over  the  figures  he  charges  you. 
At  length  lie  throws  out  a  price  list  of  a/wholesale  jeweler, 
points  out  on  it  the  watch  you  are  fancying  and  tells  you 
that  is  the  cost  of  the  thing  at  wholesale,  and  that  he  has 
added  only  enough  to  it  to  make  the  transaction  a  fair  one. 
The  fact  is  the  fellow  has  had  a  big  discount  on  that  list 
and  consequently  does  not  hesitate  to  show  the  list  to  you. 
I  wish  the  wholesale  lumber  price  list  business  could  be  run 
in  some  such  way  as  that.  Of  course  there  are  poachers 
and  others  who  would  be  giving  it  away  but  they  couldn't 
give  it  away  to  everybody.  I  would  like  to  have  it  fixed 
so  I  could  get  a  list  right  out  to  any  carpenter  or  farmer 
and  say  to  him  that  I  would  sell  him  lumber  at  an  advance, 
say  of  10  percent  on  the  prices  quoted.  Then  if  the  list  was 
out  of  whack  to  the  extent  of  about  $2  all  around  it  would 
even  things  up  and  keep  the  matter  more  closely  in  our  own 
hands." 

That  is  one  man's  opinion  and  a  pretty  good  man,  speak- 
ing in  a  lumber  sense,  he  is.  There  may  not  be  many  of 
you  who  think  along  in  the  same  channel,  and  if  there  are 
not  it  is  not  going  to  ruffle  his  feathers  much.  He  was  tell- 
ing what  he  would  like ;  still,  he  said  he  never  expected  to 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  269 

see  it  that  way.  There  are  fewer  men  selling  watches  than 
lumber  and  the  elevated  lumber  list  might  not  stay  in  hiding 
long.  The  poacher  would  have  another  string  to  pull.  He 
would  make  it  known  how  the  great  lumber  "combine"  was 
trying  to  fool  the  people  and  that  he  was  the  Moses  that 
would  lead  them  to  victory.  I  can  see,  however,  when  at 
times  such  a  list  as  described  above  would  have  its  advan- 
tages and  at  other  times  its  disadvantages. 


HOW  TO  PILE  DRAIN  PIPE. 

If  the  storage  of  this  pipe  has  not  caused  you  worry 
you  are  a  rare  exception.  The  apparently  insignificant 
things  of  life,  those  things  which  at  first  thought  we  might 
imagine  ought  not  to  be  considered  the  second  time,  not 
infrequently  give  us  much  trouble.  The  other  morning 
while  handling  a  piece  of  stove  wood  (for  I  have  to  make 
fires,  blame  it!)  a  sliver,  possibly  as  large  as  a  fine  needle 
point,  was  thrust  into  the  ball  of  my  thumb.  Trifling  thing, 
you  will  say,  and  I  know  it;  but  what  did  I  do?  You  are 
expecting  to  hear  that,  unconcerned,  I  went  right  on  with 
my  morning  chores,  never  minding  that  minute  sliver.  From 
what  you  know  of  me  and  from  the  way  I  have  talked 
about  whipping  the  Boers  and  the  English  army  you 
wouldn't  think  that  I  would  open  my  mouth  about  the  little 
sliver.  I  will  tell  you  what  I  did.  I  dropped  my  chores 
as  though  they  were  red  hot,  rushed  into  the  back  parlor 
with  my  every  day  clothes  on,  and  called  to  my  best  girl 
to  hurry  up  and  pick  a  sliver  from  my  thumb  that  was 
hurting  like  tarnation !  She  was  enjoying  a  sweet  nap,  but 
years  ago  she  pledged  herself  to  obey  me,  so  out  she  came, 
needle  in  hand,  and  having  raised  the  sliver,  held  it  on  the 
point  of  the  needle  toward  the  light,  remarking,  "Fiddle- 
sticks, I  can  hardly  see  it !"  Then  I  sneaked  out  to  feed  the 
old  black  cow. 

This   simply   illustrates  our  make-up,   and   in    fact  the 


270  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

make-up  of  all  things  material.  The  concrete  is  composed 
of  the  minute — minute,  but  all  important.  If  today  we 
should  fall  and  break  an  arm  the  news  would  go  all  over 
town,  yet  gnawing  away  on  us  are  bacilli,  so  small  they 
would  probably  get  away  from  the  best  microscope  any  of 
us  owns,  and  which  in  time  will  do  us  up  in  such  a  way 
that  as  compared  with  it  we  would  call  a  broken  arm  a 
picnic. 

Not  long  ago  in  conversation  with  a  yard  man  we  can- 
vassed several  knotty  questions.  He  told  me  how  grades 
had  deteriorated  at  wholesale  points,  how  collections  were 
bothering  him,  how  anxious  he  was  to  get  hold  of  a  good 
man  to  work  in  the  yard,  but  it  was  not  until  we  had  walked 
around  the  yard  and  halted  in  one  corner  of  it  where  pipe 
was  piled  that  real  trouble  seemed  to  be  rubbed  into  his  very 
soul.  He  said  he  was  disgusted  with  the  pipe  trade.  When 
a  customer  came  for  it  that  customer  would  see  particular 
pieces  which  he  wanted  in  the  pile,  and  when  an  effort  was 
made  to  get  them,  down  would  roll  the  stuff,  not  infrequently 
breaking  and  raising  the  dickens  generally. 

I  stepped  into  a  yard  the  other  day,  and  there  the  pipe 
problem  was  solved.  How?  Why,  bless  you,  by  simply 
standing  the  pipe  on  end!  A  small  area  had  been  leveled 
off,  boards  laid  to  make  a  smooth  surface,  and  on  these 
boards  was  standing  the  pipe.  "Where  did  you  get  that 
idea  ?"  I  asked  the  yard  man. 

"I  thought  it  out,"  said  he.  "That  pipe  used  to  give  me 
more  trouble  than  all  the  mothers-in-law  I  ever  had,  so  I 
devised  this  way  and  now  it  is  as  easy  as  sleeping."  I  was 
half  a  mind  to  ask  the  man  to  kindly  take  a  lath  and  pound 
my  head  as  a  reward  for  my  skull  being  so  thick  all  these 
years.  Never  fall  down?  Never.  Never  blow  down? 
Never. 

It  is  not  safe,  this  yard  man  says,  to  pile  eight-inch 
pipe  more  than  two  lengths  high,  but  when  it  comes  to  a  foot 
and  up  in  diameter  it  can  be  piled  three  lengths.  They 
can  be  piled  in  rows,  leaving  walking  space  between  them, 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

then  the  purchaser  can  go  among  them  and  pick  and  have 
the  pieces  selected  set  out.  There  is  no  falling  down,  no 
tumbling  around,  consequently  no  breakage  and,  what  is  as 
good,  no  harrowing  of  the  feelings.  It  is  better  for  us  to 
harrow  our  corn  patch  than  our  feelings.  I  hope  that  plenty 
of  you  are  already  piling  your  pipe  in  this  way,  but  of  all  the 
yards  I  have  visited  this  was  the  first  time  I  had  seen 
it  done. 


A  SWELL  PRONUNCIATION. 

We  were  talking  about  the  airs  some  people  put  on,  and 
the  yard  man  related  an  incident. 

"A  young  lady  who  had  just  come  home  from  the  sem- 
inary in  Nora  Springs  drove  up  to  my  place  one  morning 
and  asked  me  if  I  had  any  cem-ent.  I  didn't  know  what  in 
fury  she  was  trying  to  get  through  her,  so  I  hesitated  and 
told  her  I  thought  I  had  none.  'You  must  have,'  said  she. 
'Cem-ent!  Mother  wants  it  to*stop  the  leak  in  the  cistern/ 

"  'Oh/  I  said,  'ce-ment !  Why,  of  course,  how  stupid  I 
was !'  Then  I  gave  her  a  half  bushel  of  Portland  cement. 

"That  night  when  the  principal  of  the  school  came  along 
I  asked  him  what  cem-ent  was,  and  he  said  it  was  the  same 
as  ce-ment ;  that  either  pronunciation  was  correct.  I  had  to 
take  his  word  for  it,  but  I  never  heard  that  swell  pronuncia- 
tion given  to  it  before.  It  is  wonderful  how  blamed  cute  and 
wise  young  ladies  do  get  at  boarding  schools !" 


SELLING  OUT-OF-DATE  STOCK. 

When  the  yard  man  remarked  there  were  people  who 
don't  know  what  style  is,  and  who  will  buy  an  article  as 
quickly  if  it  is  out  of  fashion  as  they  will  if  it  is  in,  I  glanced 
down  at  my  shoes,  and  drew  them  back  under  the  chair.  I 
associate  more  or  less  with  the  bon  ton  lumbermen  of  the 
country  and  undoubtedly  ought  to  dress  in  the  hight  of 


272  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.     „ 

fashion,  but  somehow  it  isn't  in  me.  I  don't  know  how. 
I  am  so  unsophisticated  in  those  matters  which  pertain  to  the 
polished  world  that  the  clothing,  hat,  boot  and  shoe  man  can 
sell  me  almost  anything.  That  is  why  I  wear  diamonds,  for 
I  know  diamonds  are  always  in  fashion.  Some  weazen- 
faced  duke  over  in  Paris,  with  waxed  mustache,  can't  dictate 
how  a  diamond  shall  glitter,  thank  the  Lord. 

After  this  yard  man  had  his  remarks  under  headway  I 
saw  he  was  not  driving  at  me.  "Now  take  that  package  of 
corner  blocks  there  for  door  casings,  so  far  as  fashion  is 
concerned  they  are  deaders,"  he  said.  "You  wouldn't  think 
a  man  in  the  whole  country  would  buy  them.  Nobody  uses 


"That  is  why  I  wear  diamonds." 

corner  blocks  in  casings  nowadays,  you  might  say ;  but  lots 
of  people  do.  I  am  furnishing  a  house  now  that  will  cost 
$2,400,  and  those  very  blocks  are  playing  a  part  in  it.  The 
house  is  being  built  by  a  retired  farmer,  and  he  hasn't  set 
up  nights  studying  the  styles  in  building. 

"There  are  those  porch  posts.  I  wouldn't  put  that  pat- 
tern in  a  house  for  myself ;  still,  I  sold  six  of  them  today. 
Then  take  windows ;  this  year  the  style  is  one  size  and  next 
year  it  will  be  another,  but  that  little  matter  needn't  worry 
the  retail  dealer.  The  average  builder  knows  nothing  about 
the  style  in  windows.  Two  inches  on  the  length  of  a  win- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  273 

dow  cuts  no  figure  with  him.  When  it  comes  to  a  large  win- 
dow I  have  noticed  that  nine  in  ten  people  think  that  the  big- 
ger it  is  the  better  it  is.  Get  in  a  big  window  with  a  little  red 
or  yellow  glass  in  the  transom  and  they  think  they  are  fixed. 

"To  lay  in  with  a  good  carpenter  is  a  good  way  to  keep 
out-of-date  stuff  moving.  My  faith  in  the  carpenter  as  a 
help  to  the  retail  dealer  grows  all  the  time.  I  have  made 
money  by  laying  in  with  them.  A  carpenter,  if  he  has  a 
mind  in  that  direction,  can  do  the  lumberman  a  good  favor 
at  every  turn,  and  if  he  is  not  disposed  to  do  that  he  can  do 
him  dirt.  I  started  in  as  a  carpenter -myself,  and  know  how 
it  is.  When  I  first  opened  in  the  yard  business  I  also  dick- 
ered a  little  in  contracting.  One  of  the  carpenters  got  down 
on  me,  and  by  the  jumping  Moses  if  he  didn't  dirk  me!  He 
would  tell  that  my  lumber  was  poorer  than  my  neighbor's, 
and  I  know  he  knocked  me  out  of  bills.  I  don't  care  what 
story  the  worst  villain  in  a  community  may  start  there  is 
somebody  who  will  believe  it." 

Trying  to  draw  him  back  to  the  original  proposition  of 
out-of- fashion  stock,  I  asked  him  what  hung  longest  around 
his  premises.  "Well,"  said  he,  "I  have  some  book  accounts 
that  have  been  hanging  around  here  eleven  years !" 


DUPLICATE  RECEIPTS. 

This  is  a  big  world  and  not  one  of  us  can  ever  expect 
to  see  all  there  is  in  it.  You  may  say  I  ought  to  have  run 
up  against  these  duplicate  receipt  books  a  hundred  times 
before  now,  but  all  the  same  I  haven't.  I  had  sat  around 
the  office  for  an  hour  and  a  half  and  had  begun  to  think 
it  was  my  fate  to  leave  the  town  as  dry  as  a  farrow  cow, 
but  just  when  I  was  about  to  get  a  move  on  me  the  yard 
man  took  an  odd  looking  book  from  a  drawer  and  gave  a 
customer  a  receipt.  "What  is  that  ?"  I  asked. 

"A  receipt  book,"  replied  the  yard  man  as  unconcerned 
as  though  nothing  was  happening.  Then  after  the  cus- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER, 

tomer  was  gone  we  sat  down  to  the  table  and  discussed 
this  new  f angled  receipt  book.  The  pages  are  twice  as  long 
as  the  receipt  blank  proper  is  wide.  There  are  two  blanks, 
one  at  the  top  of  the  page  and  the  other  at  the  opposite  side 
at  the  bottom  of  the  page.  When  a  man  using  one  of  these 
books  is  so  fortunate  as  to  receive  money  the  carbon  paper 
is  placed  over  the  top  blank,  the  sheet  folded  up  over  it, 
which  causes  the  lower  blank  to  register  with  the  one  cov- 
ered by  the  carbon,  the  receipt  is  written,  torn  off  along  a 
perforated  line  and  given  to  the  customer,  and  beneath  the 
carbon  paper  is  the  duplicate.  It  is  nothing  that  is  compli- 
cated and  is  quite  in  line  with  the  other  carbon  duplicate 
work,  but  to  me  it  was  new. 

"I  never  permit  a  man  who  has  paid  me  money  to  go 
out  of  my  office  without  a  receipt,"  said  the  yard  man,  "and 
I  want  to  be  able  a  year  from  that  time  to  tell  that  he  had 
it,  too.  And  there  is  the  proof,"  he  continued,  tapping  the 
book.  "When  a  long  account  is  run,  a  man  buying  lumber, 
coal,  wood,  lime,  and  so  on,  the  customer's  ideas  concern- 
ing the  payments  he  has  made  are  liable  at  times  to  be  very 
vague.  He  may  pay  for  some  lumber  today,  as  an  after- 
thought order  a  ton  or  two  of  coal,  and  when  the  bill  is  sent 
him  for  the  coal  he  remembers  paying  for  the  lumber;  he 
knows  he  ordered  the  coal  at  the  same  time  and  wonders 
why  in  the  dickens  he  didn't  square  the  whole  thing  up.  He 
may  pay  it  without  any  words,  but  let  me  tell  you  I  have 
before  now  paid  accounts  which  have  been  presented  to  me, 
with  no  back  talk  on  my  part,  and  then  quit  the  place. 
There  are  men  who  don't  spit  it  out  when  they  are  dissatis- 
fied. Take  a  contractor,  for  instance ;  sometimes  he  is  order- 
ing right  along  and  paying  periodically,  as  you  may  say,  and 
it  is  not  a  bit  strange  that  he  should  get  things  mixed.  T 
believe  I  lost  $80  once  by  one  of  the  best  contractors  who 
ever  dealt  with  me.  He  said  he  had  paid  it,  and  I  was  con- 
vinced he  had  not.  If  he  did  pay  it  I  gave  him  a  receipt  and 
if  he  had  the  receipt  he  would  have  produced  it,  for  he  was 
an  honest  man.  But  there  is  no  use  talking,  receipts  are 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  275 

as  easily  lost  as  umbrellas.  A  man  was  in  here  the  other 
day,  cleaned  out  one  of  his  pockets  and  among  the  worn 
out  papers  were  two  receipts,  and  he  threw  the  whole  lot 
of  stuff  into  the  stove.  Now  when  I  give  a  man  a  receipt 
he  may  do  with  it  what  he  has  a  mind  to,  I  have  got  a 
record  of  it. 

"This  kind  of  receipt  serves  another  good  purpose. 
Having  taken  money  and  receipted  for  it  I  need  make  no 
further  record  of  that  cash  until  my  books  are  written  up 
at  night.  My  receipts  represent  cash  received.  It  is  easy 
for  a  business  man  to  'slip  a  cog,'  as  you  sometimes  put  it. 
I  know  men  who  never  pretend  to  give  receipts  unless  they 
are  asked  for  them.  How  easy  it  is  for  such  a  man  to  re- 
ceive money,  especially  in  small  amounts,  put  it  in  the  drawer 
and  then  be  called  away  before  he  makes  any  further  minute 
of  it.  That  night  his  cash  overruns,  he  can't  remember 
where  the  surplus  comes  from  and  somebody's  account  goes 
wrong. 

"What  is  the  trouble  with  ordinary  receipt  books  with 
stubs  ?  I  will  tell  you.  You  are  supposed  to  record  on  that 
stub  the  amount  you  have  written  in  the  receipt,  but  do  you 
always?  is  the  question.  I  can  answer  that  you  do  not;  or 
rather  that  I  have  not.  When  I  used  the  old  fashioned  book 
I  remember  giving  a  man  a  receipt  for  $500,  and  that  night 
when  I  looked  at  the  stub  it  was  $5.50  as  plain  as  day.  No 
doubt  my  attention  was  attracted  and  I  went  wrong.  I  did 
not  write  the  amount  on  the  stub,  simply  put  it  down  in 
figures.  What  if  that  afternoon  I  had  died  and  the  man 
had  stood  out  about  his  account?  There  was  my  hand  for 
it  that  he  had  paid  me  only  $5.50.  I  had  rather  write  two 
receipts  at  the  same  operation,  and  then  I  know  they  will 
correspond.  And  talking  about  men  standing  out  on  their 
accounts  because  the  man  they  owed  is  dead,  I  know  there 
are  those  who  will  do  it.  I  have  never  had  it  tried  on  my- 
self, but  I  have  known  of  the  game  being  played.  As  I 
look  at  it  a  man's  business  should  be  so  conducted  as  to  do 


276  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

away  with  these  possibilities  to  as  great  an  extent  as  pos- 
sible." 

That  to  me  was  an  interesting  talk  on  receipts,  and  hav- 
ing heard  it  out  I  went  up  the  street  thinking  what  uneven 
creatures  we  are.  This  yard  man  had  it  down  fine  on  re- 
ceipts, but  he  had  cause  to  complain  of  certain  credits  he 
had  given.  That  is  the  way  we  go. 


CRAMPED  QUARTERS. 

The  day  was  so  hot  that  I  did  not  feel  like  tearing 
around  town  with  my  usual  vim,  so  I  took  oft"  my  coat  and 
vest  and  sat  down  in  a  big  armchair  to  take  it  cool ;  and  at 
the  same  time  anybody  who  passed  the  office  door  could  see 
my  fine  striped  shirt  that  the  day  before  I  started  from 
home  I  had  paid  90  cents  for.  The  yard  man  was  also  in 
undress  uniform.  It  is  only  at  such  times  that  a  man  is 
himself.  He  is  not  posing  for  the  eye  of  anybody.  His  mind 
is  at  peace.  The  tension  is  off,  and  he  really  feels  happier 
than  any  queen  does  when  she  sits  on  her  gilded  throne  with 
her  crown  of  gold  and  gems,  weighing  forty  pounds,  bearing 
down  like  lead  on  the  top  of  her  head.  I  got  up  this  morn- 
ing with  the  strongest  kind  of  an  inclination  to  write  poetry, 
and  it  appears  to  be  staying  by  me. 

For  two  hours  we  sat  there  enjoying  what  may  be 
called  with  no  great  stretch  of  imagination  unalloyed  exist- 
ence. We  talked  lumber  off  and  on,  but  it  was  too  hot  to 
pursue  a  subject  with  sufficient  vigor  to  everlastingly  settle 
it.  Twice  during  the  two  hours  we  went  down  to  the  drug- 
store and  took  lemonades  through  straws.  Then,  as  a  re- 
freshing breeze  came  in  at  the  door,  the  yard  man  adjusted 
his  cigar,  gave  both  suspenders  a  snap  and  led  off  on  the 
subject  of  ample  yard  room. 

"Land  is  not  dear  out  here,"  he  began.  "If  it  cost  as 
much  as  it  does  in  the  eastern  cities  it  would  be  another  tune. 
I  know  of  no  particular  reason  why  all  of  us  should  not  have 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  277 

enough  room  to  turn  around  on.  Building  a  lumber  plant 
is  like  building  a  house.  To  start  with,  in  the  latter  case  we 
have  a  place  for  all  our  furniture,  and  think  we  are  fixed  for 
life  so  far  as  room  is  concerned,  but  by  and  by  our  families 
increase,  we  are  obliged  to  buy  more  beds  and  chairs,  and  the 
first  we  know  we  are  crowded,  and  then  we  want  to  sell  out 
and  build  larger.  It  is  similar  in  a  lumber  yard.  I  thought 
I  had  room  enough  here,  but  there  are  piles  of  lumber  in  my 
shed  alley  which  have  no  more  business  there  than  they  have 
in  my  parlor.  There  seems  to  be  no  other  place  for  it, 
though,  and  we  will  continue  to  stumble  over  it.  We  should 
so  plan  and  build  a  yard  or  shed  that  it  will  take  care  of  our 
maximum  stock." 

I  told  him  I  thought  that  was  about  right,  and  then  he 
wiped  his  brow  and  said  it  was  so  darned  hot  he  believed 
another  lemonade  would  touch  the  spot. 


PRESERVING  THE  FRESH  LOOK. 

In  the  past  week  I  have  seen  stocks  of  moldings  which 
were  as  black  as  your  hat.  In  many  a  yard  molding  is  the 
most  abused  stock.  A  dealer  will  shove  his  molding,  which 
should  be  kept  dry  and  away  from  dust,  into  a  rack  in  an 
open  shed,  when  he  would  not  think  that  he  could  leave  a 
No.  3  door  outside  his  wareroom  over  night. 

The  loss  from  this  way  of  handling  moldings  must  con- 
stantly be  met,  but  the  big  chunk  of  retribution  will  come 
later  on — when,  for  instance,  you  are  about  to  sell  your  yard. 
Then  the  prospective  buyer  will  talk  those  moldings  clear 
down  to  the  foot  of  the  hill.  He  will  say  they  are  so  soiled 
they  arc  not  worth  store  room,  and  if  you  do  not  throw  them 
in  at  a  quarter  of  their  value  you  will  do  what  thousands  of 
retail  men  have  not  done.  And  if  you  were  buying  a  yard 
I  know  you  would  feel  that  if  you  bought  dusty,  weather- 
beaten  moldings  at  a  low  price  you  would  not  be  getting 
much  of  a  bargain.  When  we  are  considering  these  matters 


278  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

which  pertain  to  ourselves  we  must  try  to  look  at  them  from 
the'  position  of  the  man  up  the  tree,  for  that  is  where  the  man 
will  be,  especially  when  he  comes  around  to  buy  our  soiled 
moldings. 

What  if  the  wholesale  dealer  should  send  you  moldings 
besmeared  with  dirt  as  those  out  in  your  shed  may  possibly 
be  this  very  minute?  What  kind  of  a  hairpin  would  you 
accuse  him  of  being?  There  should  be  practiced  an  art  pre- 
servative in  the  mercantile  business — that  of  keeping  the 
goods  as  near  as  possible  in  the  condition  they  were  when 
they  came  from  the  wholesale  houses.  In  dry  goods,  cloth- 
ing, hats,  boots  and  shoes,  when  this  is  not  done  the  man  who 
is  handling  them  is  not  called  a  good  merchant. 

It  so  happened  that  in  one  day  I  was  in  two  warehouses, 
the  methods  in  which  were  radically  different.  In  one  of 
them  there  was  an  effort  to  make  as  much  of  a  show  as 
possible.  Evidently  as  soon  as  an  invoice  of  doors  had  ar- 
rived the  paper  had  been  taken  from  the  doors,  and  they 
were  set  up  around  the  room.  In  the  other  place  there  was 
only  one  of  a  kind  stripped.  "I  want  to  keep  these  doors 
looking  as  fresh  as  possible,"  the  yard  man  said.  "If  I  un- 
wrap all  of  them  they  are  going  to  look  grimy  after  a  little. 
People  like  to  buy  fresh  looking  goods.  The  same  buyer 
does  not  come  into  this  room  often,  and  whoever  comes  may 
carry  away  the  impression  that  I  have  just  received  a  new 
stock  of  goods,  for  all  I  care.  That  impression  would  most 
certainly  be  beneficial  to  me.  No,  I  don't  permit  the  dust  to 
accumulate  on  those  that  are  still  wrapped." 

This  man  is  carrying  out  a  principle  that  is  as  sound  as 
a  dollar.  He  is  anxious  that  his  doors  shall  have  a  fresh  ap- 
pearance, and  thus  create  the  impression  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  see  them  that  they  were  recentlv  purchased;  and 
thinking  they  were  new,  the  buyer  would  as  naturally  as  he 
breathed  infer  that  the  styles  were  the  latest.  We  are  all 
the  time  reasoning  from  this  to  that,  and  every  time  the 
conclusion  is  either  for  or  against  something  or  somebody. 

At  another  place  the  yard  man  threw  open  some  tightly 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  279 

fitting  doors,  and  there  were  his  molding  strips  in  an  in- 
closure  that  would  defy  dust.  "One  of  the  best  paying 
improvements  I  have  on  the  place,"  was  the  comment. 

A  yard  man  recently  told  me  that  one  advantage  of  a 
closed  shed  is  that  it  is  thought  by  some  that  the  lumber  that 
comes  from  it  is  in  better  condition  than  though  it  had  been 
piled  open  to  the  weather.  What  is  more  easy  for  a  novice 
in  lumber  affairs  to  believe  than  this  ?  And  not  infrequently 
there  would  be  some  truth  mixed  with  the  poetry. 

"I  have  sold  lumber  to  some  people  because  they  thought 
they  were  getting  'fresh'  stock,  as  they  termed  it.  Every 
board  was  bright  and  clean,  and  it  pleased  them,"  he  said. 

Some  one  before  any  of  us  was  born  said  something 
about  putting  his  best  foot  forward,  and  there  was  so  much 
sense  in  the  saying  that  it  will  no  doubt  be  going  the  rounds 
after  our  lumber  career  shall  have  ended.  It  is  a  very  good 
saying  to  bear  in  mind,  and  to  follow  it  is  inexpensive  in  dol- 
lars and  cents  often.  We  frequently  get  it  into  our  heads, 
however,  that  it  is  the  costly  that  most  benefits,  while  in  fact 
the  reverse  is  true.  The  absolute  necessities  of  life  cost 
little. 


THE  SQUARE  MAN. 

I  have  observed  that  when  a  man  has  been  running  a 
yard  for  years  in  a  town  and  has  prospered,  more  than 
ninety-nine  times  in  a  hundred  he  is  a  man  of  excellent 
character.  I  was  in  a  town  in  which  there  are  two  yards. 
One  of  them  is  run  by  a  dealer  who  has  sold  lumber  on  that 
ground  for  many  a  year.  He  has  got  rich — rich  enough  to 
satisfy  anybody  who  isn't  crazy.  And  right  along  he  has 
been  doing  the  lion's  share  of  the  trade  of  the  town.  We 
chatted  for  a  long  time  and  it  struck  me  there  was  good 
deal  of  man  about  him.  You  know  that  the  fly  up  the 
creek  fellow  is  branded  in  some  way.  If  I  believed  in  a 
devil  I  should  ,be  inclined  to  think  he  might  have  stamped 
these  fellows  so  he  could  pick  them  out  easily  when  he 


280 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


wants  them.  Then  I  went  over  to  the  other  yard  and  the 
dealer  there  said  a  word  or  two  about  his  competitor.  "He 
is  hard  competition/'  said  he,  "but  he  is  as  square  as  a  die." 
I  thought  I  knew  it,  for  on  general  principles  he  would 
not  have  been  selling  lumber  all  these  years  and  holding 
the  trade  of  the  town  unless  he  had  been  square.  And, 
boys,  for  a  long  pull  these  square  men  are  the  hardest  com- 
petitors that  .walk  the  earth.  Why,  it  is  child's  play  to 
compete  with  the  trickster  to  what  it  is  to  hold  our  own  when 
selling  lumber  alongside  of  a  man  who  is  "square  as  a  die," 
unless  we  are  also  square. 


"As  square  as  a  die." 

I  have  seen  your  tricksters  and  schemers  open  their 
yards,  deceive  people  right  and  left,  but  they  didn't  last. 
They  made  a  good  deal  of  rumpus  while  they  were  at  it 
but  it  was  not  long  until  they  folded  their  tents  and  stole 
away.  These  men  don't  wear  and  consequently  they  don't 
stick.  The  public  is  a  lynx  eyed  animal  after  all.  It  looks 
through  and  through  us,  and  when  we  don't  know  it,  too. 
A  young  dealer  was  telling  me  how  he  wras  selling  No.  2 
dimension  for  No.  i  and  in  other  ways  pulling  the  wool 
over  the  eyes  of  his  customers.  I  really  felt  like  getting 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  281 

him  out  behind  the  shed  and  preaching  a  little  sermon  to 
him.  He  is  standing  in  quicksand  and  has  already  sunk  up 
to  his  ankles.  He  will  try  to  fool  his  customers  more  and 
more  right  along  and  by  and  by  they  will  know  him  as  well 
as  he  knows  himself.  That  is  the  way  it  goes.  A  man  who 
means  to  be  good  grows  better  and  the  deliberately  bad 
man  grows  worse.  Goodness  begets  goodness  and  decep- 
tions begets  deception.  Nothing  is  truer  than  that  we  reap 
what  we  sow. 


FALLACY  OF  SAYING  "NO." 

"Have  you  so-and-so?"  I  heard  asked  of  a  yard  man, 
and  the  reply  was,  "No,  I  haven't." 

I  was  sitting  by  the  stove  with  one  leg  carelessly  thrown 
over  the  arm  of  the  chair,  in  my  usual  quiet,  informal 
manner,  and  while  I  made  no  outward  sign  I  did  feel  as 
though  I  would  like  to  clear  the  deck  for  action  and  reel 
off  a  little  speech  to  the  lumberman,  for  as  I  look  at  it  those 
are  among  the  last  words  which  as  a  seller  of  boards  he 
should  permit  to  escape  from  his  lips. 

Very  likely  the  man  who  asked  for  that  particular  item 
of  lumber  didn't  know  his  business.  He  knew  there  was 
such  a  grade  as  he  called  for,  but  he  was  a  wise  man  indeed 
if  he  knew  that  nothing  else  would  take  its  place,  for  that  is 
something  which  even  some  of  the  best  carpenters  and  con- 
tractors have  not  yet  learned. 

When  the  question  was  asked  the  yard  man  I  certainly 
expected  to  hear  him  call  back,  "Hello,  Jim !  Come  in. 
What  are  you  making  now?"  If  he  had  taken  such  a  course 
he  would  have  found  out  in  three  minutes  what  the  lumber 
was  needed  for,  and  no  doubt  would  have  sold  it. 

Oh,  these  bothersome  grades !  If  I  were  running  a  yard, 
so  far  as  the  average  customer  is  concerned  I  would  fire 
them  higher  than  -the  kite  in  the  fable  soared.  1  would  sell 
boards  for  every  purpose,  but  not  grades  for  any  purpose. 


282  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

A  yard  man  told  me  that  when  selling  a  bill  at  least  60 
percent  of  his  customers  appealed  to  him  as  to  the  way  in 
some  particular  it  should  be  filled. 

A  Missouri  man  writes  that  when  he  first  read  that  I 
considered  it  poor  business  policy  to  talk  about  grades  to 
the  average  customer  he  didn't  know  what  kind  of  a  fellow 
to  take  me  for.  He  had  been  educated  to  sell  grades  as  he 
had  bought  them,  and  of  course  thought  it  was  the  proper 
thing  to  do.  "I  got  to  thinking  it  over,"  he  writes,  "and 
then  I  adopted  it,  and  now  I  would  not  think  of  going  back 
to  the  old  system.  I  now  lose  no  sales  because  I  do  not 
have  some  particular  'grade.'  The  wonder  is  to  me  that 
I  didn't  see  it  before." 

I  like  to  sit  down  in  a  comfortable  corner  and  have  a 
yard  man  who,  with  his  eyes  open,  has  experienced  the  ups 
and  downs  of  trade  stuff  me  with  wisdom.  He  needn't  go 
slow  either,  for  I  wouldn't  object  if  I  should  swell  up  as  big 
as  a  balloon.  I  was  having  a  little  tete-a-tete,  as  the  Dutch- 
man would  say,  with  a  bright  fellow  who  had  sold  lumber 
in  more  than  one  state,  and  he  touched  on  this  subject  we 
are  talking  about.  "Many  yard  men  have  not  the  tact  to 
sell  lumber,"  he  remarked.  "If  a  customer  comes  to  an 
item  not  in  stock,  and  the  yard  man  says,  'No,'  it  throws  a 
wet  blanket  over  the  deal.  The  best  way  is  to  lead  the  cus- 
tomer up  to  a  substitute  by  saying  that  somebody  else  has 
used  such  and  such  an  item  in  a  bill,  and  often  then  he  is 
bound  to  have  it." 

This  remark  dovetails  with  a  bit  of  experience  related  by 
a  yard  man.  "I  ran  low  on  cedars,"  said  he,  "the  only 
bunch  I  had  left  being  the  sample  you  see  there  on  the 
platform.  A  farmer  came  in  who  was  in  a  rush  for  a  barn, 
and  when  it  came  to  the  roof  he  talked  cedars.  We  walked 
out  there  where  the  bunches  of  cedars  and  pines  were  lying- 
side  by  side,  and  I  dropped  in  a  good  word  for  the  pine.  I 
told  him  that  to  be  honest  the  cedars  had  not  in  this  country 
been  used  as  long  as  pine,  and  that  nobody  could  tell  which 
would  be  the  more  durable,  which  is  a  fact ;  that  his  neigh- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  283 

bor,  old  Joe  Brown,  who  was  regarded  as  a  man  of  good 
judgment,  has  used  pine  on  his  house,  and  in  less  than  five 
minutes  I  sold  him  the  pine." 

Now  I  hope  you  see  the  hole  in  the  skimmer.  What  if 
this  man  had  said,  "No,  I  haven't  the  cedars,  but  I  have  a 
good  pine  shingle  that  will  answer  the  purpose?"  The 
farmer  would  not  have  swallowed  it.  He  had  his  head  set 
on  cedars,  and  he  would  have  thought  the  lumber  dealer 
was  trying  to  palm  off  pine  on  him  because  he  didn't  have 
the  other  kind.  The  wet  blanket  would  have  been  thrown 
right  over  the  farmer's  shoulders,  and  the  chances  are  he 
would  have  gone  where  he  could  get  cedars,  and  bought 
the  balance  of  his  bill  there  as  well. 


THE  MAN  WHO  KNOWS  IT  ALL. 

An  egotistical  yard  man  once  said  to  me  that  he  had  no 
occasion  to  read  the  lumber  papers,  as  he  knew  all  about 
running  a  retail  lumber  yard.  I  did  not  tell  him  he  lied,  for 
he  was  on  his  own  fighting  ground  and  was  a  half  head 
taller  and  weighed  fifty  pounds  more  than  I  did,  but  I  kept 
up  a  hard  thinking  in  that  direction.  You  know  about  once 
in  ten  years  we  meet  a  man  with  the  brains  of  a  jackass, 
who -delights  in  making  people  with  whom  he  comes  in  con- 
tact feel  small. 

When  I  was  younger  than  I  am  now  I  used  to  think 
there  were  yard  men  who  had  mastered  their  business. 
Surely,  I  thought,  any  occupation  so  simple  as  retailing 
lumber  must  be  known  all  about  by  hundreds  of  men.  I 
have  gotten  over  that  idea,  however.  Probably  no  man 
visits  more  retail  yards  than  I  do,  and  nearly  every  week  I 
see  some  little  kink,  some  novel  method,  that  is  of  advan- 
tage to  the  man  who  employs  it  and  which  no  doubt  would 
be  of  advantage  to  others.  Generally  these  peculiarities 
are  originated  by  the  men  who  use  them.  Should  I  be  on 
the  lumber  turf  a  hundred  years  I  should  expect  to  find 


284 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


these  new  and  peculiar  methods  right  along.  Therefore,  if 
even  one  of  the  good  old  saints  were  on  earth  and  should 
tell  me  he  knew  all  about  running  a  lumber  yard,  I  should 
know  he  was  talking  through  his  hat. 

It  has  been  my  observation  that  some  yard  men  who  do 
not  pretend  to  know  it  all  stand  flush  with  any  of  us.  Late 
last  winter  one  afternoon  I  was  in  a  modest  fellow's  yard, 
expecting  to  go  from  there  into  Minnesota  that  evening. 


"I  did  not  tell  him  he  lied." 

I  had  looked  the  yard  over  and  found  it  a  slick  plant.  Every- 
thing was  in  apple-pie  order,  and  several  suggestions  which 
had  been  made  in  my  scribblings  had  been  carried  out.  Then 
he  talked  with  so  much  sense  about  collections,  credits, 
etcetera,  that  I  thought  "Here  is  a  retail  man  for  your  life." 
When  it  was  about  train  time  this  yard  man  insisted 
that  I  must  stay  over  night.  I  did  not  know  but  he  wanted 
me  to  go  to  the  opera,  charity  ball,  high  kickers,  or  some 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


285 


other  entertainment  that  would  refresh  my  weary  brain, 
so  I  consented.  After  supper  we  went  into  his  office,  locked 
the  door,  piled  on  the  fuel  and  then  this  lumberman  at- 
tached the  suction  pump  to  me.  He  doubtless  asked  a  thou- 
sand questions.  He  wanted  to  know  what  others  were  do- 
ing, what  I  had  learned  about  the  shed  question,  cash  busi 
ness,  bookkeeping,  delivering  and  a  hundred  other  allied 
subjects.  The  hands  of  the  clock  marked  eight,  nine,  ten, 
and  had  nearly  approached  eleven  before  the  little  confer- 


"Have  moss  on  his  back." 

ence  ended.  And  then  this  modest  yard  man  wanted  to  pay 
me  for  the  extra  time  I  had  put  in ! 

"Bless  your  soul,"  said  I,  "what  am  I  for?"  He  probably 
didn't  think  that  all  the  time  he  was  absorbing  from  me  I 
was  taking  from  him.  For  the  ideas  I  had  gathered  that 
evening  I  would  have  willingly  sat  up  all  night. 

This  case  is  cited  .to  illustrate  the  fact  that  the  best  men 
in  the  retail  business  are  those  who  are  conscious  they  do 
not  know  it  all,  and  are  anxious  to  know  more.  They  read 


286  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

the  matter  pertaining  to  the  yard  business  in  the  lumber 
papers,  and  take  unto  themselves  that  which  they  think 
may  be  of  benefit.  And  let  me  say  to  you,  beloved,  that 
the  man  in  any  business  who  pursues  any  other  course  will 
finally  have  moss  on  his  back. 

I  run  up  against  some  mighty  sensible  young  men  in 
the  lumber  business.  And  my  love  for  the  right  kind  of 
young  men  has  no  bounds.  Ye  gods !  but  what  a  vista  opens 
up  before  them.  Concerning  we  older  fellows,  who  are  los- 
ing our  teeth  and  wearing  corsets  to  take  the  curves  out  of 
our  backs,  it  doesn't  matter  so  much.  The  most  we  can  do 
is  to  peg  along,  regretting  that  in  the  past  we  have  not  done 
more  that  was  worthy  of  our  high  estate.  As  I  look  back  I 
see  the  richest  of  flowers  along  the  path  I  have  trod — flow- 
ers of  kindness,  love,  charity,  success,  that  I  could  have  put 
forth  my  hand  and  plucked,  but  there  they  stand  mocking 
me,  and  though  I  water  them  with  tears,  I  know  they  will 
bloom  no  more  for  me  forever.  I  wish  I  could  go  out  in 
the  grove  here  today  and  preach  a  sermon  to  every  young 
man  who  reads  this.  I  would  tell  him  that  he  may  not  only 
become  a  successful  lumberman,  but  that  in  addition  he  may 
grow  to  be  an  intellectual,  moral  and  physical  god. 

One  of  these  sensible  young  men  was  seen  not  long  ago. 
He  has  charge  of  a  line  yard  in  a  small  town,  subscribes 
for  two  papers  and  is  alive  to  the  opportunities  which  will 
surely  come  his  way.  "I  expect  some  day  to  have  a  yard  of 
my  own,  and  in  order  to  meet  the  competition  that  I  know  I 
shall  have  to  meet  I  want  to  know  my  business,"  he  said. 

Years  hence  we  may  look  for  that  young  man  clear  up 
stream  where  it  has  its  source  among  the  springs. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.      2$; 
BLIND  YARDS. 

A  blind  yard  often  serves  a  good  purpose.  When  a  yard 
man  is  anxious  to  monopolize  all  the  trade  of  a  town  that  is 
possible  one  way  is  to  put  in  a  blind  yard.  At  first  blush 
the  novice  might  ask,  "Why  blind  ?  Why  not  assume  that 
it  has  eyes  like  other  yards  ?"  Perhaps  this  is  a  fair  answer 
to  that  question  :  The  buying  community  wants  competition. 
It  seems  to  be  as  natural  for  us  to  dislike  trusts  as  it  is  to 
hope  or  love,  and  if  a  man  is  known  to  be  running  two  yards 
in  one  town,  thus  preventing  competition,  the  people  of  the 
town  regard  him  as  a  monopolist — as  having  established  a 
little  trust  of  his  own.  To  overcome  this  objection — or  rather 
that  there  may  be  no  cause  for  such  an  objection  to  exist — 
the  blind  yard  is  put  in.  The  men  who  are  running  the  pair 
of  yards  congregate  in  some  back  room  at  midnight,  or  of  a 
Sunday  when  everybody  else  is  at  church,  and  compare  notes. 
Sometimes  these  men  appear  very  distant  when,  in  sight  of 
other  people,  they  meet  on  the  street*;  they  will  talk  about 
one  another,  at  times  in  not  complimentary  terms,  in  the 
hearing  of  others ;  then  again  there  are  periods  when  seem- 
ingly they  have  a  fight,  in  a  trade  way,  on  their  hands.  All 
this  is  to  effectually  fool  the  public. 

Effectually !  That  is  the  phase  of  the  blind  yard  business 
that  I  want  briefly  to  touch  on.  We  may  think  that  the  pub- 
lic is  stupid,  easily  deceived,  but  in  this  regard  we  are  liable 
to  deceive  ourselves.  The  public  is  a  sly  old  fox;  not  the 
whole  of  the  public,  but  just  enough  of  it  to  leaven  the  rest. 
There  are  some  men  who  jump  at  conclusions  just  as  women 
do,  and  they  jump  pretty  straight,  too.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  before  they  jump  they  generally  have  a 
cue,  some  slight  excuse  for  reasoning  from  cause  to  effect. 

You  and  I  do  not  care  how  many  blind  yards  are  run, 
but  for  the  reputation  of  our  brother  lumberman  for  shrewd- 
ness when  these  yards  are  blind  we  want  them  blind.  As 
blind  as  a  bat — and  that  is  not  what  all  of  them  are. 

A  yard  to  be  run  successfully  as  a  blind  must  be  abso- 


288 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


liuely  independent.  In  a  town  two  yards  which  are  really 
one,  though  run  under  different  names,  sometimes  received 
their  stock  in  the  same  shipment.  One  yard  may  want,  say, 
10,000  feet  of  a  certain  grade  of  lumber,  and  to  make  up  a 
car  enough  is  added  of  some  other  grade  in  which  the  other 
yard  is  short.  A  railroad  freight  agent  ought  to  keep  his 
mouth  shut,  but  in  common  with  the  rest  of  us  he  does  not 
always  clo  it.  No  doubt  it  looked  a  little  odd  to  him  to  see 
the  lumber  for  these  two  yards  come  in  one  car  and  the 
freight  on  the  whole  paid  by  one  of  the  yard  men.  If  two 
men  were  running  yards  entirely  separate  this  could  be  re- 
peatedly done  and  cause  no  comment,  but  in  the  lumber  busi- 


"A  sly  old  fox." 

ness,  as  well  as  out  of  it,  there  is  that  intangible  something 
that  tells  the  story.  You  cannot  get  hold  of  it ;  it  would  not 
convict  in  a  court  of  law,  yet  it  convinces.  In  a  moment 
when  this  freight  agent  thought  he  had  some  news  to  tell  he 
related  to  an  intimate  how  these  lumbermen  divided  their 
invoices,  adding,  confidently,  of  course,  what  he  thought  was 
the  reason ;  that  intimate,  as  he  usually  does,  told  some  one 
else,  and  today  the  whole  community  thinks,  and  rightly,  of 
course,  that  both  yards  are  run  by  one  interest.  Yet  the 
members  of  that  community  do  not  tell  those  yard  men  that 
they  are  trying  to  hoodwink  them.  Right  here  is  a  point  that 
we  should  bear  in  mind  :  No  matter  what  we  may  think  of  a 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  289 

man,  \ve  rarely  tell  him  unless  we  are  mad,  drunk  or  other- 
wise are  in  an  abnormal  condition.  If  we  think  a  man  would 
steal  a  horse  we  do  not  step  up  to  his  face  and  tell  him  so. 
We  may  be  very  mean  and  people  will  hold  their  tongues 
when  we  are  within  hearing;  or  we  may  be  very  good  and 
they  are  not  going  to  come  around  every  morning  and  tell 
us  of  it,  Some  fine  day  when  another  yard  is  put  in  that 
town  the  inhabitants  will  metaphorically  throw  up  their  hats 
and  hurrah ! 

A  line  yard  concern  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag  when  its 
auditor  was  seen  inspecting  the  books  of  the  supposed  com- 
peting yard.  In  a  town  I  visited  inquiry  was  made  of  the 
hotel  man  as  to  the  location  of  the  yards,  and  in  giving  me 
that  information  he  volunteered  the  statement  that  two  of 
those  yards,  naming  them,  were  run  by  one  man.  Mum 
was  the  policy  of  the  yard  men,  but  the  hotel  man  had  got 
"onto"  them. 

In  one  town  a  yard  man — as  yard  men  frequently  do — 
told  .me  that  one  of  the  other  yards  was  his.  In  my  rounds 
I  visited  the  other  yard,  and  said  nothing  to  the  manager 
concerning  the  statement  the  owner  of  it  had  made  to  me. 
We  talked  about  trade,  competition  etcetera,  and  this  man- 
ager related  what  he  regarded  as  very  mean  tricks  which  had 
been  played  on  him  by  his  competitor.  He  was  a  good  actor. 
Afterward  I  said  to  the  principal  that  in  that  man  he  had  a 
good  blind  yard  manager,  and  he  replied  with  some  show  of 
satisfaction  that  he  knew  it. 

The  way  to  run  a  blind  yard  is  to  run  it  blind.  It  is 
different  from  a  blind  pig.  In  non-license  towns  there  are 
blind  pigs,  but  if  nobody  knew  of  their  existence  they  would 
not  live  out  the  week.  It  is  not  every  man  who  in  spirit  and 
letter  can  run  a  blind  yard.  He  does  precisely  as  all  of  us 
do  in  some  direction  or  other — gives  himself  away. 


290  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

OBJECTIONS   TO   SMALL   STOCKS. 

A  business  man  who  is  building  a  barn  out  of  town  re- 
cently came  to  me  with  a  tale  of  woe  that  evidently  welled 
up  from  the  very  bottom  of  his  heart.  He  was  disgusted 
through  and  through.  The  barn  is  not  large  and  three 
weeks  before  the  builder  wanted  to  go  to  work  on  it  he 
inquired  of  the  retail  dealer  in  a  town  three  miles  distant 
if  he  had  the  necessary  lumber,  and  was  'told  that  he 
had  not  but  would  get  it.  At  the  end  of  the  three  weeks, 
teams  were  sent  for  the  lumber  but  it  could  not  be  had. 
Again  the  teams  went,  and  the  employee  in  the  yard  sent 
out  lengths  of  boards  which  had  to  be  returned.  The  car- 
penters who  had  been  engaged  to  do  the  work  were  disap- 
pointed and  were  obliged  to  knock  off.  "This  fooling  had 
cost  me  $10,"  said  the  man.  "The  local  manager  of  the 
yard  seems  to  be  more  interested  in  breaking  horses  than 
selling  lumber,  and  the  man  he  leaves  in  the  yard  does 
not  know  a  fourteen  from  a  sixteen- foot  board." 

Being  acquainted  with  the  yard,  I  was  interested  in  this 
recital.  The  yard  is  located  in  one  of  the  best  one-yard 
towns  to  be  found  anywhere ;  in  fact  the  location  is  so  favor- 
able that  to  my  knowledge  there  has  been  talk  of  putting  in 
the  second  yard. 

This  business  policy  is  not  a  winner.  There  are  men 
in  the  trade  who  try  to  skin  along  on  the  smallest  possible 
investment,  keep  not  half  of  a  decent  stock  on  hand  and 
depend  on  ordering  even  the  smallest  bills.  Maybe  it  pays 
them — I  don't  believe  it  does.  You  can't  put  your  finger 
on  a  man  who  has  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  trade  ladder  who 
has  not  kept  a  stock  of  lumber  on  hand  to  meet  all  ordinary 
demands.  A  tuppenny  stock  means  a  tuppenny  trade.  This 
man  in  question  may  do  more  building,  and  he  swore  up  hill 
and  down  that  when  that  time  shall  arrive  he  will  haul  his 
lumber  from  a  point  nine  miles  distant.  Then  the  home 
man  will  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  he  did  not  get  the  bill 
because  the  fellows  in  the  other  town  underbid  him.  There 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  291 

are  yard  dealers  who  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  there  are 
times  when  men  consult  their  convenience  as  well  as  the 
price  they  pay. 

This  way  of  conducting  a  lumber  yard  is  an  excellent 
one  to  court  competition.  There  is  here  and  there  a  man 
in  a  one-yard  town  who  seems  to  think  that  as  he  has  the 
only  yard  he  will  sell  the  lumber  anyway,  and  therefore  can 
take  his  own  gait.  In  several  instances  I  have  known  these 
men  to  wake  up  some  fine  morning  conscious  of  the  un- 
welcome fact  that  some  other  dealer  is  "onto"  this  gait,  and 
will  attempt  to  improve  on  it. 


LEGAL  KINKS. 

When  chatting  with  a  yard  man  the  other  day  a  point 
came  up  that  may  be  of  interest  to  you.  This  yard  man 
gave  an  order  and  the  car  was  stuffed  with  three  or  four 
thousand  feet  more  of  that  particular  lumber  than  he  wanted. 
A  contractor  was  in  a  hurry  for  some  of  the  material  and 
as  soon  as  the  car  arrived  the  lumber  required  by  him  was 
shoved  out  and  hauled  away.  Then  the  yard  man  began 
to  reflect  on  the  stuffing  act.  Was  he  obliged  to  accept  and 
pay  for  lumber  which  he  had  never  ordered?  He  did  not 
want  to  be  rash  and  put  his  foot  in  it,  so  he  sought  the  ad- 
vice of  a  lawyer.  There  are  lawyers  and  lawyers,  many  of 
them  incompetent,  but  this  particular  lawyer  does  not  rank 
with  the  sticks.  He  told  the  yard  man  that  the  cheapest 
way  out  of  it  was  to  pay  the  bill ;  that  he  should  have  known 
by  the  invoice  whether  he  wanted  to  accept  the  lumber  or 
not,  and  that  if  he  did  not  want  it  he  should  have  left  the 
car  intact  subject  to  the  order  of  the  shipper.  Having 
accepted  the  invoice  without  protest  he  virtually  accepted 
the  lumber  that  followed.  A  recent  supreme  court  decision, 
the  lawyer  said,  bears  directly  on  this  point. 

Kink  No.  2  pertains  to  loss  in  blind  yards  by  fire.     There 
are  blind  yards  scattered  all  over  the  country,  and  it  may 


292  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

transpire  that  when  these  yards  burn,  should  such  be  their 
unfortunate  fate,  the  owners  of  the  lumber  will  be  unable 
to  collect  a  cent  on  the  insurance  policy.  At  any  rate,  a 
blind -yard  did  burn  and  the  insurance  company  refused  to 
pay,  on  the  ground  that  the  owner  did  not  insure  the  lumber 
and  the  case  is  now  being  contested  in  court.  It  would 
seem  from  the  standpoint  taken  by  this  insurance  company 
you  have  no  right  to  insure  my  property,  nor  I  yours; 
that  if  I  insure  property  claiming  it  is  mine  when  really 
it  belongs  to  some  one  else  I  am  entitled  to  no  recompense 
in  case  of  loss. 

This  may  prove  to  be  law  or  it  may  prove  not  to  be ;  as 
said  above,  the  court  will  decide.  If  decided  to  be  law  it 
will  have  a  far  reaching  effect.  Life  insurance  policies  are 
often  kept  in  force  by  outside  parties,  and  on  the  face  of  it 
this  phase  of  insurance  would  be  equally  affected.  It  has 
come  to  my  knowledge,  however,  that  there  are  blind  yard 
men  who  are  more  careful  regarding  the  way  they  are  in- 
sured than  they  once  were,  and  also  that  there  are  insurance 
agents,  whose  interests  are  of  course  the  interests  of  the 
insured,  who  are  going  slow  in  some  of  those  matters  which 
heretofore  have  been  little  considered.  I  was  told  by  an 
incorporated  lumber  company  that  an  agent  to  whom  it 
recently  applied  for  a  policy  refused  to  write  it  in  the  name 
of  the  company,  asserting  it  was  not  the  thing  to  do,  but 
instead  it  was  written  in  the  names  of  all  the  members  of 
the  company. 

I  broached  this  point  to  a  lawyer,  lightly  touching  him 
so  he  would  not  expect  a  fee,  and  it  was  his  version  that  any 
man  who  is  authorized  to  act  as  agent  for  others  may  legally 
insure  the  property  in  his  keeping  in  his  own  name  unless 
it  be  definitely  stated  to  the  contrary  in  the  policy,  and  in 
some  policies  it  is  so  stated.  Of  course  were  one  of  these 
cases  to  be  thoroughly  discussed  by  lawyers  a  score  of 
wherefores  and  whereases  would  come  to  the  surface.  They 
would  pop  up  until  any  saint,  who  was  not  a  lawyer,  would 
not  know  whether  he  was  on  foot  or  riding  a  horse. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  293 

LIGHT  RIGS  FOR  LIGHT  WORK. 

The  question  of  free  delivery  is  one  on  which  dealers  do 
not  agree.  One  of  the  successful  yard  men  of  Kansas  said 
to  me  he  would  not  want  to  dispense  with  free  delivery ;  that 
in  his  opinion  the  expense  was  more  than  offset  by  the  con- 
venience. I  couid  no  doubt  name  off-hand  a  half  hundred 
yard  men  who  agree  with  this  dealer — men  who  deliver 
lumber  not  because  they  are  forced  to  do  so,  but  as  a  matter 
of  choice.  The  other  side  of  the  question  has  its  warm  ad- 
vocates. A  man  who  has  the  management  of  well  toward 
a  hundred  yards  regards  free  delivery  as  opposed  to  sound 
business  principle ;  and  others  could  be  named  who  take 
this  view  of  it.  Those  dealers  who  vote  nay  on  the  ques- 
tion say  that  delivery,  where  only  one  team  is  used,  involves 
an  extra  expense  of  from  $6co  to  $1,000  a  year,  and  that 
as  much  lumber  can  be  sold  if  it  is  not  delivered,  while  the 
advocates  of  free  delivery  assert  that  it  belongs  to  the  up-to- 
date  methods  of  conducting  any  mercantile  business.  As  is 
usual  in  other  matters  wherein  we  differ,  we  do  not  in  this 
one  have  that  charity  toward  one  another  which  shines  as  an 
electric  light.  I  have  heard  the  delivery  men  refer  to  their 
co-laborers  who  do  not  deliver  as  belonging  to  the  fogy 
class,  and  the  latter  to  the  dealers  who  deliver  as  throwing 
money  away. 

We  should  be  thankful  there  is  no  imperial  edict  in 
the  matter.  When  visiting  a  lumberman,  if  he  is  a  good 
fellow  and  has  his  pockets  full  of  good  cigars,  I  never  think 
of  pounding  my  head  over  the  fact  that  he  does,  or  does  not, 
deliver.  We  return  scanty  thanks  for  living  in  a  country 
where  we  can  do  about  as  we  have  a  mind  to,  provided  we 
do  not  interfere  too  much  with  the  rights  of  others. 

There  is  one  phase  of  the  delivery  business,  however, 
that  is  opposed  to  common  sense.  Not  long  ago  I  saw  a 
yard  man  loading  a  half  dozen  boards,  16  feet  long  and  6 
inches  wide,  on  a  wagon  that  would  carry  two  tons  of  coal 
with  safety,  behind  a  big  lubber  of  a  horse  that  could  not 


294 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


trot  a  mile  in  six  minutes  to  save  him  from  purgatory. 
There  is  no  sign  of  the  eternal  fitness  of  things  in  that  kind  of 
business.  I  suggested  to  the  driver  that  he  might  have  to 
carry  those  boards  a  long  distance,  and  he  said  they  were  go- 
ing a  mile.  He  probably  estimated  the  distance  about  right, 
for  he  counted  up  the  blocks.  Not  having  much  else  to  do,  I 
looked  at  my  watch  when  he  left  the  shed,  again  when  he 
returned,  and  the  time  was  thirty-five  minutes.  With  a 
light  rig  the  man  ought  to  have  been  gone  no  more  than 
twelve  minutes  at  the  longest.  I  have  in  mind  a  yard  man 
who,  with  his  fire-gong,  lightning  delivery,  would  have  laid 
those  boards  down  at  their  destination  in  four  minutes,  and 
easilv  returned  in  five  more. 


"Has  his  pocket  full  of  good  cigars." 

Now  suppose  that  four  such  trips  are  made  from  this 
yard  every  day,  there  goes  an  hour  and  a  half  daily,  nine 
hours  weekly,  forty-five  hours  monthly,  and  for  the  year 
fifty-four  days  of  ten  hours  each.  Then,  into  the  bargain, 
the  townsmen  of  this  yard  man  must  think  every  time  they 
see  that  two.-ton  rig  delivering  a  few  boards,  or  a  bunch  of 
lath,  that  the  lumberman  is  doing  his  business  in  a  bungling 
way. 

Yet  how  many  of  the  yard  men  who  deliver  do  you  think 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  295 

have  light  rigs?  I  do  not  want  to  be  too  hard  on  them,  so 
I  am  going  to  say  not  5  percent.  The  remaining  95  percent 
go  rattling  through  the  streets  with  big  wagons  and  heavy 
horses,  no  matter  if  they  are  not  carrying  fifty  pounds.  We 
live  in  hope,  however,  for  light  delivery  rigs  in  the  lumber 
business  are  so  new  they  are  really  an  innovation.  It  is  a 
wonder  they  were  not  thought  of  a  score  of  years  ago;  but 
the  seed  has  now  been  sown,  and  from  the  few  light  wagons 
will  spring  light  wagons  galore.  That  is  a  miserable  word, 
but  it  adds  variety  and  picturesqueness  to  my  vocabulary. 


HANDY  FOR  THE  DELIVERY  MAN. 

You  no  doubt  believe  in  having  lumber  receipted  for 
when  it  is  delivered.  I  have  seen  but  one  yard  man  who 
did  not  think  it  was  the  proper  thing  and,  strange  to  say, 
he  is  one  of  the  most  successful  retail  men  in  the  whole 
country. 

I  was  hanging  around  a  yard  one  rainy  afternoon,  and 
when  the  driver  came  in  from  a  trip  he  fumbled  in  his 
pockets  with  his  wet  and  dirty  fingers  and  brought  out  a 
piece  of  paper  that  was  folded  about  three  times  and  which 
for  moisture  and  dirt  about  tallied  with  the  driver's  hands. 
This  was  more  than  two  years  ago,  but  it  was  recalled  to 
mind  last  week  when  I  saw  a  little  appliance  which  over- 
comes the  objections  named  and  which  it  seems  to  me  is  well 
worth  the  money.  It  is  an  aluminum  binder  made  on  pur- 
pose for  drivers  to  carry.  It  will  accommodate  a  blank  4x7 
inches  and  by  means  of  a  spring  in.  the  back  tightly  holds 
any  papers  which  may  be  placed  in  it.  When  a  bill  is  sent 
to  a  job  the  items  are  written  on  a  blank,  the  file,  or  binder, 
inclosing  it  is  given  to  the  driver,  who  presents  it  to  the 
proper  person  and  who  attaches  his  name  to  the  memoran- 
dum. There  is  no  removing  the  blank  from  the  file;  the 
man  who  signs  for  the  material  has  a  smooth  surface  on 
which  to  write ;  the  driver  snaps  the  cover  together,  return- 


296  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

ing  it  to  the  office,  the  bill  without  dirt  or  crease  and  in  as 
good  order  as  it  was  when  taken  away.  Then  if  your  driver 
happens  to  be  an  old  16  to  i  man  he  will  carry  the  alumi- 
num file  around  tickled  as  a  child  because  it  shines  like 
silver. 

This  apparatus  is  not  exactly  new,  but  no  doubt  it  is  new 
to  many  of  you.  Thus  far  I  have  seen  it  in  use  in  only  one 
yard. 


THE  SET  JAW. 

In  southern  Iowa  the  woman  in  black  asked  how  much 
her  bill  was,  and  expressed  surprise  at  the  amount.  The 
yard  man  told  her  that  the  extra  dollar  in  question  was  for 
fitting  five  windows,  including  the  cartage,  and  took  the 
money  in  as  cold  blood  as  though  he  had  been  a  frog.  As  a 
looker  on  I  could  see  the  customer  was  not  satisfied,  yet  the 
yard  man  did  not  treat  her  as  a  dissatisfied  customer  should 
be  treated.  When,  in  trade,  we  are  aware  that  a  thing  is 
going  wrong  the  proper  way  is  to  correct  it  if  possible. 
Seemingly  there  was  no  give  to  this  lumberman.  He  set  his 
jaw,  said  the  bill  was  so  much,  and  that  ended  it. 

The  set  jaw  in  business  is  not  a  paying  institution.  It 
creates  the  impression  that  there  is  only  one  side  to  the  deal. 
It  too  much  reminds  one  of  a  policeman  who  only  knows 
that  the  law  must  be  enforced,  raises  his  club  and  drives 
people  on,  or  in.  A  little  pleasant  talk  with  this  woman, 
followed  by  the  assurance  that  the  bill  could  not  be  fur- 
nished for  less,  would  have  changed  the  atmosphere.  In  the 
spring  and  fall,  when  the  weather  is  chilly  and  our  offices  are 
cold,  we  throw  a  handful  of  refuse  into  the  stove,  and  the 
chill  flees.  When  the  social  or  business  atmosphere  is  chilly, 
a  few  warm  words  will  dispel  it.  For  this  purpose  warm 
words  come  near  being  a  specific.  The  successful  diplomat, 
the  successful  salesman,  is  he  who  can  say  the  right  word  at 
the  right  place.  It  is  not  the  man  who  talks  all  the  time, 
or  who  says  nothing.  When  we  keep  a  dogged  silence,  we 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


297 


repulse.  I  knew  from  this  woman's  looks  that  she  went 
away  dissatisfied. 

''Some  women  are  good  customers,"  I  said  to  the  yard 
man  after  the  woman  was  out  9f  hearing. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "that  woman  has  bought  a  good  deal  of 
stuff  of  me  this  season.  Her  husband  died  last  fall,  and  she 
has  been  giving  the  house  a  general  overhauling."  Yet 
today,  if  I  know  one  kind  of  ginger  from  another,  that 
woman  would  not  hesitate  to  go  to  another  yard  for  the 
next  bill  she  may  want. 

Don't  you  know  that  our  customers  in  town  ought  to  be 


"The  woman  in  black." 

our  friends?  It  seems  to  me  that  tells  the  kind  of  man  the 
tradesman  is.  If,  as  fas'v  as  you  can  sell  a  house  or  barn 
bill,  you  leave  in  the  mouth  of  the  buyer  a  bad  taste,  you 
are  doomed  in  a  business  way  in  spite  of  your  religion,  poli- 
tics or  good  looks. 

"Women  are  the  easiest  customers  in  the  world,"  said  a 
Nebraska  man.  "But  you  can't  handle  them  in  as  matter- 
of-fact  a  way  as  you  can  men.  When  I  have  a  good  woman 
customer  I  aim  to  do  something  gratuitously  for  her.  I  re- 
member a  case.  A  woman  built  a  house  that  cost  some- 
thing over  two  thousand,  and  T  furnished  everything.  I 


298  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

also  got  my  price.  Much  is  said  about  the  woman  and  the 
bargain  counter,  but  when  it  comes  to  buying  lumber  she 
is  a  list  payer.  She  was  keeping  a  close  watch  on  the  build- 
ing of  the  house,  and  when  the  carpenter  went  to  hanging 
the  front  door  she  discovered  it  was  not  the  one  she  had 
selected.  Down  she  came  and  told  me  I  had  made  a  mis- 
take. Then  I  informed  her  I  had  taken  the  liberty  to  change 
the  doors ;  that  on  thinking  it  over  I  had  concluded  the  door 
she  had  selected  was  not  as  good  as  the  house  called  for, 
and  that  if  she  would  permit  me  to  do  it  I  was  going  to  con- 
tribute to  the  good  looks  of  the  house  the  difference  in  the 
price  of  doors,  which  was  about  $2.50,  I  believe.  Then  I 
got  the  two  cuts  together  so  that  she  could  see  the  difference. 
There  was  really  no  comparison  between  them.  The  door 
I  sent  up  was  a  stunner — of  the  two,  too  good  for  the  house, 
but  not  too  good  for  my  purpose.  She  went  away  all  smiles, 
and  I  knew  if  she  had  built  twenty  houses  I  would  have  sold 
her  the  lumber." 

That  man  is  a  diplomat.  He  may  possibly  have  had  in 
mind  the  time  of  settlement  when  he  would  want  the  woman 
to  feel  as  happy  as  a  lark. 

No,  the  set  jaw  doesn't  pay. 


WOES   OF   THE   COAL   MAN. 

You  know,  beloved,  we  are  not  acquainted  with  one  an- 
other. Each  thinks  that  the  other  fellow's  business  is  a 
little  slicker  deal  than  his  own,  which  arises  from  know- 
ing our  own  business  instead  of  the  other  man's.  Last 
week,  'when  our  day's  labor  was  done  and  we  were  sitting 
under  a  tree  in  front  of  the  hotel  making  our  arms  fly 
like  wind  mills  in  a  vain  attempt  to  keep  the  mosquitoes 
from  sucking  our  rich  blood,  a  hat  salesman  from  Kansas 
City  informed  me  what  a  snap  I  have.  "Go  where  you 
have  a  mind  to — stop  at  the  best  hotels — nothing  to  sell — 
simply  interview  the  few  lumber  dealers  in  a  town  and  write 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  299 

tip  a  little  piece  about  them" — was  the  way  he  virtually 
put  it.  I  did  not  tell  him  that  I  had  served  twenty  years' 
apprenticeship  learning  the  little  I  know  about  the  lumber 
industry,  and  that  the  little  pieces  are  supposed  to  be  writ- 
ten with  a  discretion  which  has  come  from  experience;  I 
didn't  tell  him  what  an  iron  will  it  required  to  resist  being 
filled  so  full  of  bull  ideas  when  I  sit  down  to  chat  with  my 
wholesale  friends  that  I  would  be  no  good  to  myself,  a 
paper  or  to  my  country,  forever  and  forever,  hereafter,  as 
the  colored  preacher  emphasized  it;  or  that  while  he  was 
sweetly  sleeping  at  dead  of  night  I  was  often  scrambling 
out  of  bed  to  dot  down  a  big  thought  which  like  an  angel 
had  kindly  visited  me  and  which  I  was  afraid,  did  I  not 
chain  it  to  earth,  would  flee  before  morning.  I  know  noth- 
ing about  the  hat  business,  but  I  did  feel  that  I  could  take 
his  cases  and  sell  a  hat  to  every  man,  woman  and  child  on 
the  street  easier  than  I  could  concoct  one  idea,  from  what 
the  three  yard  men  seen  that  afternoon  had  said  to  me, 
that  would  be  of  the  slightest  interest  if  put  in  print.  You 
see,  we  don't  know  one  another ;  if  we  did,  we  would  carry 
around  a  load  of  mantles  of  charity  and  throw  one  of  them 
around  the  shoulders  of  every  brother  who  is  stumbling 
or  fainting  by  the  way. 

It  would  be  one  of  the  easiest  things  imaginable  for  a 
novice  to  believe  that  the  coal  trade  is  a  bonanza.  That 
novice  would  think  that  a  boy  ten  years  old  could  conduct 
it.  It  is  sold  as  it  is  bought ;  there  is  no  regrading  and 
it  requires  no  particular  study  to  learn  the  characteristics 
of  the  different  kinds.  Occasionally  one  kind  is  sold  for 
another,  but  that  is  all  in  a  lifetime  and  we  will  not  talk 
about  it.  But  I  tell  you,  the  woes  which  arise  from  selling 
coal  are  as  black  as  its  dust.  Recently  in  two  days  I  was 
in  three  towns.  The  first  town  has  2,800  people,  five  coal 
yards,  and  coal  was  selling  at  cost  and  being  delivered  into 
the  bargain.  In  town  No.  2,  of  about  the  same  size,  there 
are  seven  yards,  and  coal  is  selling  at  cost.  Town  No.  3 
has  8,000  people,  eleven  coal  yards,  with  a  prospect  of  an- 


300  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

other,  and  coal  is  selling  at  cost.  This  all  happened  in  two 
days,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  towns  in  which  the  condi- 
tion is  similar.  When  these  old  business  heads  are  running 
money  into  rat  holes  in  this  way,  how  would  a  ten-year-old 
boy  make  it  go?  I  am  not  sure  but  that  often  he  would 
show  better  sense  than  do  some  of  those  who  have  grown 
gray  in  the  service. 

A  yard  man  of  a  dozen  years'  experience,  when  reduc- 
ing the  contents  of  his  pipe  to  ash,  ran  on  as  follows :  "I 
do  not  know  what  kind  of  a  germ  it  is  that  is  affecting  the 
coal  dealers  this  year.  We  used  to  make  money  on  coal. 
For  years  my  regular  price  was  $i  above  cost,  delivered, 
and  as  I  had  my  own  men  and  teams.  I  was  not  so  very 
much  out  for  delivering.  But  here  we  go  to  pitching  the 
price  at  cost — $8.  The  price  is  $5.50  in  Chicago,  and  $2.50 
freight.  Every  dealer  in  town  is  as  busy  as  he  can  be  filling 
up  his  customers,  and  in  less  than  a  month  the  great  bulk 
of  the  coal  used  in  the  city  for  the  next  year  will  be  in  the 
bins.  Put  in  at  cost!"  And  the  yard  man  gave  a  con- 
temptuous look  that  meant  at  least  a  whole  sentence. 

"Then  for  awhile  the  coal  business  will  let  up,"  he  con- 
tinued. "Our  money  will  be  scattered  throughout  the  com- 
munity, not  a  cent  interest  will  we  get  on  it,  or  a  thank  you 
for  the  favor  which  has  been  shown  when  it  is  paid.  There 
is  here  and  there  a  bill  that  will  never  be  paid.  Last  week 
I  refused  a  man  six  tons  who  never  pays  anything  if  he 
can  help  it,  and  he  generally  can  help  it,  and  the  next  day 
I  saw  my  competitor  shoveling  in  the  coal.  Now,  this  is 
all  wrong;  we  should  hang  together  and  let  one  another 
know  about  these  customers,  but  instead  we  go  at  it  every 
man  for  himself,  and  as  a  result  the  devil  catches  the  most 
of  us  by  the  coat  tails.  Six  times  eight  is  forty-eight — 
almost  $50,  you  see.  It  is  not  a  great  sum  in  itself,  but 
there  is  no  profit  to  counteract  it.  The  dealer  is  a  little  new 
here  and  he  don't  know  our  people.  Next  winter  will  come 
the  driblet  trade.  Maybe  at  that  time  we  will  have  gained 
our  senses,  and  maybe  we  won't,  but  if  we  do  get  sense  it 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  301 

will  be  after  the  main  chance  has  gone  by.  The  water  that 
would  have  turned  the  mill  will  be  way  down  stream.  We 
may  get  a  little  profit  then,  but  we  will  be  carting  around 
from  200  to  500  pounds  of  coal,  taking  some  of  it  a  dis- 
tance of  two  miles.  Then  again  it  is  on  these  small  orders 
we  lose  most,  as  eight  times  in  ten  they  go  to  people  that 
you  can't  collect  a  cent  from.  That  is  the  way  the  coal 
business  begins  and  ends  here.  Competition  gets  hotter 
and  hotter.  There  is  somebody  standing  around  all  the 
time  looking  for  an  opportunity  for  business,  and  they  wade 
in  when  it  seems  to  me  they  must  know  there  isn't  a  shil- 
ling in  it.  There  is  one  deuced  bad  condition  in  this  coun- 
try ;  it  is  full  of  money,  the  rate  of  interest  is  low  and  people 
take  their  money  and  pitch  in." 

I  was  about  to  file  an  objection  to  the  statement  that 
plenty  of  money  and  low  interest  is  an  unfavorable  condi- 
tion, but  just  then  one  of  the  teamsters  stopped  in  front  of 
the  window  and  said  that  widow  somebody  was  kicking 
like  a  mule  because  her  coal  was  so  dusty. 

"Wet  it  down  in  the  load  and  be  sure  and  tell  her  it  was 
weighed  before  it  was  sprinkled,"  was  the  yard  man's 
injunction.  Then  in  a  side  remark  he  explained,  "If  they 
paid  for  ten  pounds  of  water  they  would  think  they  were 
being  swindled  out  of  their  eye  teeth." 


CONVERTED    TO    REASONABLE    PRICES. 

To  a  man  in  active  business,  and  to  one  up  a  tree,  the 
same  question  is  at  times  regarded  differently.  I  will  admit 
that  the  man  up  the  tree  has  little  to  lose.  He  can  sit  perched 
on  a  limb  and  give  advice,  and  no  matter  to  what  extent  it 
may  miscarry  he  is  outside  the  pale  of  law  and  can  only  be 
reached  with  a  club. 

The  yard  man  is  busy.  He  may  or  may  not  be  inclined  to 
take  a  thorough  survey  of  the  situation.  He  may  be  hustling 
to  meet  a  note,  bill,  or  to  buy  his  wife  a  sealskin.  Few  of 


302  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

us  know  what  he  is  hustling  for.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
at  times  the  man  up  the  tree  can  see  farther  than  can  he  on 
the  ground.  Then  at  other  times  the  man  up  the  tree  gets 
so  dizzy  that  he  cannot  see  anything. 

Nothing  in  a  trade  way  has  brought  more  sorrow  to  my 
heart  than  to  see  the  retail  men  keep  right  on  selling  at  their 
old  prices  when  wholesale  prices  were  going  skyward.  I 
couldn't  help  it,  though.  I  was  told  that  I  didn't  know  the 
temper  of  the  lumber-buying  community,  as  if  the  temper  of 
the  lumber-buying  community  varied  from  that  which  buys 
nails  or  flour.  Lumber  buyers  simply  wouldn't  pay  the  ad- 
vance, I  was  told.  When  asked  why  I  heard  no  answer  more 
convincing  than  the  one  we  all  used  to  give  when  we  were 
boys,  "  'Cause !" 

I  saw  a  Nebraska  dealer  who  carries  a  half-million  stock. 
He  was  shoving  out  lumber  at  a  ridiculously  low  price  and 
said  his  customers  would  not  stand  an  advance.  I  made  the 
remark  that  if  it  was  my  stock  they  would  have  to  stand  it 
if  they  got  the  lumber ;  that  if  they  wouldn't  stand  it  I  would 
lock  up  my  office  before  I  would  unload  at  any  such  figures 
as  he  was  getting.  When  I  started  for  the  train  no  doubt  he 
looked  on  my  broad  back  and  said  to  himself,  "There  goes 
another  of  them  fool  newspaper  tramps !" 

I  met  this  yard  man  again  and  he  recalled  our  previous 
conversation.  "Do  you  remember  saying  if  the  stock  was 
yours  you  would  lock  up  the  yard  before  you  would  run  the 
lumber  out  at  the  prices  I  was  selling  for?"  I  told  him  I 
believed  I  did  remember  saying  something  to  that  effect. 

"That  is  what  you  said,"  he  continued,  "and  if  I  had 
the  thing  to  do  over  again  I  am  not  sure  but  it  is  precisely 
what  I  would  do.  I  wouldn't  shut  my  yard,  but  I  would 
follow  the  advance.  I  wouldn't  sacrifice  my  lumber.  It 
wasn't  the  fault  of  the  advance  that  it  didn't  make  me  a 
clean  $1,500,  but  it  didn't." 

Within  a  short  time  I  have  talked  with  two  other  yard 
men  who  are  now  looking  at  the  question  in  about  the  same 
light.  One  of  them  said  that  for  months  he  sold  lumber 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


303 


for  figures  at  which  it  could  not  be  replaced.  A  good  profit 
that  he  ought  to  have  made  did  not  materialize.  Said 
the  other  yard  man,  "I  and  my  neighbor  entered  into  an 
idiotic  competition,  basing  our  estimates  on  what  our  lumber 
cost  us  instead  of  what  it  was  worth.  We  sold  bill  after  bill 
that  ought  to  have  made  us  $4  a  thousand  when  they  did  not 
make  us  $i." 

I  say  it  is  too  bad,  and  1  have  said  so  right  along.  There 
is  no  use  crying  for  spilt  milk,  however.  The  water  that  has 
flowed  by  will  not  turn  a  wheel,  some  poet  has  said;  but 
there  are  yard  men  who  can  take  a  hint  if  they  are  so  dis- 
posed, for  there  are  certainly  those  who  ought  to  be  selling 


"Another  fool  newspaper  tramp." 

lumber  for  more  money  than  they  are  getting  for  it.  If  they 
do  not  pull  themselves  together  in  this  regard  I  am  fearful 
that  about  next  spring  they  will  be  wrestling  with  the  spirit 
of  regret. 

The  reason  why  so  many  yard  men  clung  to  old  prices 
was  they  did  not  believe  in  the  permanency  of  the  advance. 


304  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

I  know  those  who  do  not  believe  in  it  now.  They  ought  to 
have  had  a  pretty  good  taste  of  it  by  this  time ;  still  they  are 
unbelievers,  I  recently  saw  one  yard  man's  team  hauling  lum- 
ber from  the  yard  of  a  neighbor,  and  was  told  that  this  was 
a  daily  occurrence.  This  dealer  has  no  confidence  in  the 
stability  of  the  market.  He  will  not  stock  up,  and  when  out 
of  sorts  fills  in  from  his  neighbor's  piles.  He  told  me  there 
was  a  shortage  of  350,000  feet  in  his  yard.  I  should  not 
want  my  foot  in  that  trap. 


OAK  FOR  BRIDGES. 

Once  my  best  girl  said  I  came  as  near  having  a  wooden 
head  as  any  man  she  had  ever  seen ;  but  of  course  it  was  a 
joke.  She  said  she  thought  I  would  grow  fat  talking  and 
writing  about  lumber.  Maybe  that  is  so.  Wood  certainly 
interests  me.  I  feel  at  home  when  I  can  chat  with  any- 
body who  knows  his  business  about  wood,  its  growth,  sup- 
ply and  consumption.  Yesterday  I  saw  a  man  laying  the 
floor  of  a  new  iron  bridge,  and  hitching'  my  imaginary 
thoroughbred  to  a  fence  post  I  climbed  up  the  bank  and 
learned  something  about  the  use  of  oak  for  bridges.  I 
struck  the  right  man,  for  it  turned  out  that  he  was  the 
official  bridge  builder,  for  the  county,  and  for  five  years 
had  been  doing  nothing  but  building  and  repairing  bridges. 
This  was  one  of  the  central  counties  of  Iowa — an  average 
county  possibly — and  the  information  this  bridge  builder 
gave  me  came  near  knocking  me  off  into  the  stream. 

There  are  in  this  county  a  few  more  than  1,800  bridges 
which  will  average  thirty-two  feet  long,  he  said.  They  are 
all  floored  with  oak.  On  a  chip  we  figured  out  that  taking 
as  a  basis  a  2-inch  plank,  12  inches  wide  and  16  feet  long, 
and  assuming  that  the  stringers  contain  three-fourths  as 
many  feet  as  the  floor,  each  bridge  would  contain  1,632 
feet.  Some  bridges  are  wider  than  sixteen  feet,  and  some 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


305 


are  planked  with  3-inch  instead  of  2-inch,  so  to  provide  for 
this  surplus  we  called  it  an  even  2,000  feet  for  each  bridge. 
Multiplying  this  amount  by  the  number  of  bridges  we  have 
3,600,000  feet  of  oak  in  the  bridges  of  this  one  county 
alone.  In  many  counties  oak  only  is  used,  and  if  this  holds 
true  in  all  of  the  ninety-nine  counties  of  Iowa  the  total 
amounts  to  about  360,000,000  feet. 

This  does  not  cover,  however,  the  complete  bridge  work. 
Only  a  bridge  that  is  sixteen  feet  long  or  more  belongs  to 


''Figured  on  a  chip." 

the  county,  and  how  many  bridges  there  are  in  the  county 
less  than  sixteen  feet  long  there  is  no  way  of  knowing. 

This  oak  planking  conies  from  both  the  north  and  the 
south,  but  mainly  from  the  south,  the  bridge  man  thought. 
White  oak  is  bargained  for,  but  he  says  that  some  red  is 
run  in.  The  bulk  of  it  comes  through  the  hands  of  the 
retail  dealer.  Owing  to  the  "lumberman's  union,"  as  the 
bridge  builder  called  it,  the  best  way  was  to  get  the  plank 
through  the  yard  men.  Up  there  on  the  bridge,  with  the 


3o6  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

wind  whistling  by  at  railroad  speed,  and  my  ears  so  cold 
that  I  wanted  to  put  them  in  my  pocket,  I  was  not  disposed 
to  explain  the  workings  of  the  retail  association  to  the  man, 
and  I  suppose  he  slept  as  sweetly  that  night  as  though  he 
knew  all  about  it.  Neither  was  I  disposed  to  say  a  word  that 
would  disabuse  his  mind  of  the  idea  that  it  was  most 
proper  that  the  bridge  plank  should  be  handled  by  the  yard 
men. 

The  durability  of  bridge  floors  depends  largely  on  the 
kind  of  winter  we  have,  I  was  told.  If  an  open  one,  and 
it  is  necessary  to  have  the  horses  sharply  shod,  the  corks 
will  cut  through  the  wood  rapidly.  A  winter  with  plenty 
of  snow  is  a  great  saving  on  the  wear  and  tear  of  a  bridge. 
He  had  known  2-inch  pine  to  last  only  one  year.  The 
3-inch  oak  he  was  putting  down  might  last  ten  years, 
though  that  was  stretching  out  the  time  pretty  well,  he 
thought.  These  3-inch  plank  cost  the  county  $36  a  thou- 
sand. 

At  one  time  it  was  thought  to  be  an  improvement  to  lay 
the  plank  lengthwise  of  the  driveway,  but  it  is  no  longer 
done.  It  had  some  advantages,  but  the  disadvantages  out- 
weigh them.  There  are  men  who  will  go  miles  around 
before  .they  will  take  a  threshing  outfit  over  a  bridge  on 
which  the  planks  are  laid  lengthwise,  fearful  lest  they  may 
crowd  apart  and  let  some  of  the  traps  into  the  stream. 
Then,  provided  the  sides  of  the  bridge  securely  hold  the 
planks  from  spreading,  there  will  be  enough  shrinkage  to 
take  in  a  carriage  wheel.  When  the  planks  are  laid  cross- 
wise these  cracks  are  beneficial,  as  they  let  the  snow  and 
rain  water  through. 


GETTING  A  CUSTOMER'S  STANDING. 

It  is  a  ticklish  thing  to  tell  a  man  that  his  credit  is  good 
or  is  not  good  when  you  are  not  dead  certain  what  you  are 
talking  about.  If  you  make  a  mistake  it  may  cost  you  a 
good  customer,  or  a  good  sized  account  on  your  books  which 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  307 

from  year  to  year  will  be  labeled  n.  g.  These  no  good  ac- 
counts do  not  tend  to  cheer  a  fellow  up  gloomy  days.  Too 
many  of  them  give  him  the  nightmare  and  take  away  from 
him  that  vein  of  pleasantry  which  should  bubble  right  out  of 
him  when  he  has  locked  his  office  door  and  sits  down  of  an 
evenrng  in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  as  it  were.  "Great 
guns !"  said  an  old  dealer  to  me,  "if  I  had  gone  on  through 
life  trusting  everybody  as  I  did  the  first  year  I  started  in 
business  a  national  bank  would  not  have  floated  me." 

While  experience  does  not  teach  us  as  much  as  seemingly 
it  ought  to  we  learn  a  great  deal  from  it.  The  man  quoted 
above  learned  at  the  end  of  twelve  months  to  pick  the  men 
to  whom  he  sold,  and  that  is  what  we  must  all  learn  to  do, 
else,  to  speak  poetically,  our  craft  will  pitch  headlong  on  the 
rocks  and  knock  her  brains  out.  For  a  new  man  in  a  town 
to  trust  the  worthy  and  refuse  the  unworthy  is  an  accom- 
plishment. You  open  your  yard  today  and  in  comes  a  man 
whom  you  don't  know  from  Adam  and  orders  a  load  of 
lumber.  To  handle  that  man  right  calls  for  diplomatic  skill. 
You  know  that  the  clothes  he  wears  do  not  tell  the  story. 
Dead  beats  generally  dress  as  well  as  anybody,  and  some- 
times better  than  honest  folks.  He  may  tell  you  that  he  is  a 
merchant,  physician,  lawyer,  editor,  but  that  does  not  tell  the 
story.  There  are  men  in  all  these  classes  who  would  pick 
your  eye  teeth  out  if  they  got  the  chance.  It  is  surprising 
how  many  men  there  are  in  every  community  who  are  striv- 
ing to  live  easily  on  the  hard  earned  dollars  of  others. 

Many  towns  have  their  credit  books,  which  are  of  great 
value,  but  to  know  how  to  use  them  in  a  proper  way  is 
something  of  itself  to  learn.  We  will  say  that  a  new  grocer 
sets  up  business  in  your  place,  and  you  drop  in  and  order  a 
bill  of  goods.  "There !  Great  granther !"  you  exclaim,  "I 
have  left  my  pocketbook  in  my  other  breeches.  I  will  drop 
around  in  the  morning  and  pay.  I  suppose  that  will  be  all 
right !" 

The  next  move  of  this  man  will  probably  cause  you  either 
to  like  or  dislike  him.  Suppose  he  goes  to  his  desk,  jerks  out 


308  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

the  credit  book,  opens  it,  runs  his  ringer  down  a  page  until  he 
conies  to  your  name,  sees  that  Vanderbilt  stands  no  higher 
and  says,  "Yes,  that  will  be  all  right.  You  can  have  all  the 
goods  here  you  want."  You  go  out  of  the  store  not  feeling 
tip  top.  The  idea  of  looking  into  a  credit  book  to  see 
whether  you  pay  your  debts  or  not !  That  is  the  way  they 
look  up  the  herd ;  and  one  of  the  great  efforts  of  your  life 
is  to  bring  yourself  to  think  that  you  do  not  belong  to  the 
herd.  You  should  receive  special  treatment  in  some  way — 
that  is  what  we  all  like.  Your  face  should  have  told  that 
duffer  who  sells  sugar  and  codfish  that  you  are  not  beating 
your  way  through  the  world. 

The  grocer  of  course  made  a  mistake.  Provided  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  get  a  sly  peep  at  the  rating  book  he 
should  have  said,  ''Certainly,  that  will  be  all  right,"  and 
asked  you  in  a  friendly  way  to  call  again.  You  would  have 
thought  that  merchant  a  great  reader  of  human  nature,  and 
ten  to  one  would  have  bought  more  goods  of  him.  Then 
when  you  had  left  the  store  patting  yourself  on  the  back 
the  grocer  would  look  you  up.  If  he  found  you  were  all 
right  the  goods  would  be  delivered ;  if  you  were  not  all  right 
he  would  drop  you  a  note  saying  that  he  could  not  deliver 
the  goods  unless  they  were  paid  for.  Why  this  course  ?  you 
may  ask.  Simply  for  the  reason  that  on  your  first  meeting 
he  should  treat  you  as  though  he  considered  you  perfectly 
reliable  and  responsible,  which  would  be  the  way  to  inspire 
your  confidence.  Should  you  prove  of  doubtful  credit  he 
would  lose  nothing  by  frankly  telling  you  he  did  not  care  to 
put  your  name  on  his  books.  Whichever  way  the  thing 
might  turn  he  would  be  on  safe  ground. 

You  may  do  as  you  have  a  mind  to,  but  I  would  never 
have  a  rating  book  in  sight  on  my  desk.  There  are  men 
who  are  as  touchy  as  old  setting  hens,  and  it  is  a  part  of  a 
good  business  man's  education  to  coddle  and  cater  to  these 
men. 

I  sat  in  a  line  yard  office  in  which  there  was  a  new 
manager,  and  a  man  carne  in  who  said  he  was  thinking  of 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  309 

building  a  barn.  "What's  the  name?"  was  asked.  "O,  yes/' 
responded  the  manager,  as  though  the  name  might  have  been 
as  familiar  to  him  as  household  words.  The  conversation 
had  not  gone  far  when  the  manager  looked  at  his  hands, 
rubbed  them  together,  and  asking  to  be  excused  for  a  minute 
stepped  into  the  private  room  back  of  the  desk.  He  soon 
came  out  wiping  his  hands  with  his  handkerchief,  and  no 
doubt  the  prospective  customer  thought  he  had  been  wash- 
ing them.  But  his  sole  object  in  leaving  the  man  who  was 
thinking  of  building  a  barn  was  to  see  how  he  was  rated. 
Then  he  knew  him  and  began  to  talk  business. 

You  understand,  beloved,  that  our  particular  old  lumber 
yards  are  not  of  prime  importance  in  the  world — that  is,  the 
world  would  wag  along  without  them  very  comfortably.  If 
people  do  not  want  to  trade  with  us  they  do  not  have  to. 
There  are  other  yards  where  they  can  go  and  buy  their  stuff. 
The  moral  is  we  want  to  fasten  lumber  buyers  to  us  with 
hooks  of  steel ;  so  treat  them  at  -every  turn  and  in  every 
transaction  that  it  will  be  a  pleasure  for  them  .to  come  again. 


OUT   OF   HIS   PLACE. 

Few  of  us  talk  to  one  another  from  the  heart.  We  talk 
from  the  head.  We  veneer,  gild  and  deceive.  The  world  is 
full  of  bluff  games.  We  want  our  acquaintances  to  think 
that  we  are  intellectual  and  moral  Apollos ;  that  we  are  men 
without  warp,  shake  or  knot,  to  speak  in  a  lumber  sense.  My 
heart  goes  out  to  the  man  who  owns  right  up  that  he  is 
human,  for  we  all  know  he  is  whether  he  owns  up  to  it  or  not. 

After  supper  we  strolled  around  to  the  yard  and  made 
ourselves  as  comfortable  as  we  could  in  chairs  under  a  tree  in 
front  of  the  office.  The  sun  had  gone  down  and  a  cool  breeze 
had  taken  the  place  of  the  extreme  heat  of  the  day.  The  yard 
man  had  emptied  his  pipe  twice  and  I  had  chewed  a  cigar 
until  it  looked  sick.  "I  wonder,"  he  said  thoughtfully,  "how 
many  men  there  are  in  the  lumber  business  who  do  not  right- 


3io 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


fully  belong  there  ?  How  many  who  simply  endure  the  busi- 
ness because  they  have  to  make  a  living  some  way,  and 
pitch  into  lumber  because  it  seems  easy  or  because  it  is 
handy." 

Then  he  said  he  was  one  of  the  out-of-place  creatures; 
that  as  far  back  as  he  could  remember  his  taste  was  for  medi- 
cine. When  he  was  a  little  boy  his  chief  delight  was  to 
rig  up  a  pair  of  saddlebags,  such  as  the  old-time  doctor 
carried,  fit  them  out  with  packages  of  flour,  ginger,  sugar 
and  bottles  of  colored  water,  and  then  treat  some  member 
of  the  family  who  would  play  sick. 


"The  man's  frankness  was  charming." 

"The  passion  has  never  left  me/'  he  continued,  "but  when 
a  boy  my  education  was  neglected  and  I  was  obliged  to  give 
up  my  pet  idea.  You  may  think  me  foolish,  but  last  spring 
my  colt  was  badly  cut  on  barbed  wire,  and  I  took  more  pride 
in  doctoring  up  that  colt  than  I  did  in  selling  any  bill  of 
lumber  I  have  ever  handled." 

This  man's  frankness  was  charming.  I  knew  he  was 
not  trying  to  stuff  me.  There  under  the  stars,  which  were 
beginning  to  twinkle,  he  was  honest  with  me,  just  as  at  all 
times,  whether  the  stars  twinkle  or  not,  we  should  be  honest 
with  one  another. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  311 

There  is  generally  something  pathetic  in  the  life  that  is 
obliged  to  follow  other  than  its  natural  bent,  for  that  life, 
as  a  rule,  is  not  a  happy  one.  No  matter  how  humble  the 
work  of  the  individual  may  be,  if  pride  is  taken  in  it — a 
pride  that  indicates  adaptability — that  individual  is  to  be 
envied  by  many  a  man  who  thinks  he  is  far  above  him.  A 
man  in  a  yard  was  recently  showing  me  how  he  put  on  a 
big  load  of  lumber.  He  was  thoroughly  interested  in  his 
work,  was  good  natured  and  happy.  Happy!  Do  many 
other  words  in  the  English  language  imply  as  much  mean- 
ing? Throw  it  on  the  scales  with  power,  riches,  and  it  will 
outweigh  both  of  them. 

Tn  midsummer  my  boy  and  myself  were  strolling  along 
the  finest  residence  street  of  St.  Paul — along  where  the  rail- 
road magnate,  Jim  Hill,  lives.  We  were  in  a  lounging  mood, 
so  we  would  walk  for  a  little  way  and  then  sit  in  the  shade 
on  the  coping,  chat  and  eat  peanuts.  One  of  the  lessons  I 
want  my  boy  to  learn  thoroughly  rs  that  the  thing  made  is 
never  so  great  as  the  maker  of%  it.  I  think  that  unless  we 
learn  this  lesson  we  go  through  life  ungrateful  wretches.  I 
said  to  my  boy  that  those  beautiful  houses  were  simply  an 
expression  of  industry  and  persistency  and  skill;  that  was 
all,  and  that  the  men  who  built  them  were  as  much  greater 
than  the  houses  as  the  houses  were  greater  than  a  dovecote 
that  we  saw  perched  in  a  tree.  Then  I  said  to  him  that  the 
most  foolish  thing  in  the  world  is  to  covet  these  nice  things 
which  other  people  have.  That  any  man  who  will  pay  the 
price  for  them  may  have  them.  That  his  father  was  not  a 
railroad  magnate  like  Jim  Hill  because  he  would  not  pay  the 
price.  Then  he  looked  at  me  inquiringly,  thinking,  no  doubt, 
that  a  week  before  I  had  told  him  I  could  not  afford  to  buy 
him  a  pair  of  patent  leather  shoes  for  vacation  purposes, 
and  revolving  in  his  mind  how  I  could  buy  the  position  of 
a  railroad  magnate,  even  if  I  wanted  it,  when  I  could  not 
afford  to  buy  a  pair  of  shoes.  I  saw  the  position,  turned 
the  switch  a  little  and  told  him  that  if  any  of  these  people 
had  more  fun  in  their  great  mansions  that  we  did  in  our 


312  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

little  cottage  down  among  the  Iowa  hogs  and  cornfields  we 
would  like  to  know  it,  and  then  we  would  pitch  in  and  have 
a  Httle  more  fun  and  beat  them.  An  argument  which  deals 
with  fun  is  the  one  that  always  appeals  to  a  boy. 

AH  sorts  of  rigs  were  passing,  and  along  came  the  finest 
one  of  them  all.  The  sleek  horses  were  light  on  their  feet, 
the  driver  sat  as  straight  as  a  cob  and  portions  of  the  car- 
riage were  gilded.  The  young  lady  wore  silk  and  diamonds 
which  blazed  from  the  center  of  the  street  to  the  sidewalk. 
My  boy  expressed  surprise  and  admiration. 

"What  do  you  see  in  that  carriage  ?"'  I  asked  him. 

"I  think  it  is  a  crutch,"  was  the  reply. 

It  was  a  crutch.  The  poor  cripple,  who  was  taking  her 
outing,  had  laid  her  crutch  on  the  bottom  of  the  carriage  and 
it  stuck  over  the  edge  of  it  a  foot  or  more.  Then  I  said 
to  my  boy  that  there  were  crutches  in  many  of  the  fine  car- 
riages and  in  many  of  the  magnificent  residences.  "You 
would  not  be  compelled  to  go  around  on  crutches  for  all  of 
them,  would  you?"  I  asked. 

"You  bet  I  wouldn't,"  was  his  answer. 

"You  ought  to  jump  right  up  here  on  top  of  Jim  Hill's 
stone  fence,  swing  your  hat,  hurrah  and  thank  God  that  you 
have  two  good  legs  under  you,"  I  told  him. 

And  he  did.  He  stepped  up  there  and  playfully  swung 
his  hat,  and  the  man  who  was  sprinkling  the  lawn  looked 
at  us  as  though  we  were  two  hoboes  and  that  he  had  a  mind 
to  set  the  dog  on  us.  Leaving  the  aristocratic  neighborhood, 
we  wandered  down  town  and  laid  in  a  25-cent  New  England 
boiled  dinner  with  all  the  eclat,  as  they  say  in  the  drawing- 
rooms,  with  which  we  would  have  dined  at  the  Ryan  with 
a  colored  gentleman  behind  the  chair  of  each  of  us. 

He  is  a  mean  creature  who  will  not  sympathize  with  a 
fellow  man,  and  you  know  it  is  generally  done  by  citing 
some  of  our  own  woes.  If  your  wife  should  say  she  had 
been  suffering  from  the  toothache,  some  other  man's  wife 
would  chip  in  and  tell  of  the  time  when  she  had  the  tooth- 
ache to  beat  the  band.  That  was  all  T  could  do  with  this 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  313 

yard  man  who  is  peddling  boards  when  it  would  be  more  to 
his  taste  to  peddle  pills — cite  my  own  grievances. 

He  was  told  that  I  was  not  doing  that  which  I  would 
most  like  to  do,  but  that  I  could  not  do  it,  and  there  was  an 
end  to  it.  I  expected,  however,  that  the  desire  would  in 
due  time  be  realized.  The  Almighty  had  sown  the  seed, 
and  some  time  the  fruit  would  follow.  It  might  be  in  this 
life,  it  might  be  a  hundred  years  hence,  or  it  might  be  a 
million  years  in  the  future.  I  can  wait,  and  am  not  going  to 
mourn  myself  baldheaded  longing  for  it.  My  faith  in  the 
power  that  is  over  all  is  absolute ;  and  His  will  not  mine  will 
be  done,  no  matter  what  my  choice  in  the  matter  may  be. 
He  said  such  a  belief  might  be  consoling  to  me,  but  it  was 
his  wish  to  achieve  his  desires  in  this  life,  as  he  knew  nothing 
about  any  other.  I  replied  that,  in  my  opinion,  this  life,  as 
compared  with  the  vast  vista  that  was  opening  before  us,  is 
a  mere  scratch  of  a  pencil  on  a  white  sheet  that  would  cover 
the  state,  and  that  for  aught  we  knew  cycles  hence  he  would 
be  prescribing  for  the  angels. 

Then  the  whistle  which  tears  people  apart  sounded  out 
east  of  the  tpwn,  and,  grasping  my  grip  and  accompanied  by 
my  friend  the  yard  man,  I  made  my  way  to  the  station. 


GATES  AND  DOORS. 

It  would  have  been  an  interesting  item  if  I  had  kept  tab 
on  the  number  of  useless  gates  and  gateways  without  gates, 
that  I  have  seen.  These  gates  were  built  with  the  best  of 
intentions— for  the  purpose  of  keeping  dogs,  tramps  and 
thieves  out  of  the  yard — but  gradually  they  fell  into  a  state 
of  innocuous  desuetude,  and  there  they  are.  or  rather  there 
they  are  not  when  yon  want  them.  Some  of  them  are  lean- 
ing up  against  the  fence  or  shed,  while  others  are  nowhere, 
probably  having  been  used  for  kindling  wood. 

He  is  a  matter-of-fact  man  who  keeps  his  yard  in  ship 
shape  from  one  year's  end  to  the  other.  I  saw  a  new  yard 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


the  other  day  and  it  looked  as  though  it  had  just  come  out 
of  a  band  box.  But  the  question  is,  will  this  yard  man 
weary  in  well  doing?  He  probably  will.  The  most  of  us 
do.  There  is  a  certain  point — a  mean  ground — between 
sickness  and  health,  success  and  failure,  right  and  wrong, 
when  we  are  inclined  to  let  things  take  their  own  way. 
There  is  nothing  decided  in  the  condition,  and  so  we  let  'er 
slide.  It  is  that  way  with  gates.  When  the  rust  has  eaten 
the  hinges  so  nearly  off  that  the  gate  begins  to  totter  as  with 
old  age  we  let  it  go  until  they  are  entirely  eaten  off,  and 
then  we  may  put  on  new  hinges ;  or,  thinking  that  we  have 


"Pile  the  gate  up  against  the  fence." 

never -been  stolen  poor,  we  may  pile  the  gate  up  against  the 
fence.     I  say  we  may,  for  so  many  of  us  do  it  that  way. 

There  is  this  man  who  has  just  put  in  a  new  yard.  He 
is  really  enthusiastic.  In  this  regard  he  is  like  a  newly 
married  man  who  swears  that  the  dear  creature  he  has  taken 
unto  himself  shall  lead  a  life  of  comfort  and  happiness,  but 
who  in  a  few  short  months  permits  her  to  get  out  of  bed  in 
cold  weather  and  build  the  fire,  and  leaves  her  home  nights 
to  cry  and  wonder  why  the  heart  of  man  is  so  changeable, 
while  he  is  out  drinking  beer  with  his  old  boon  companions. 
I  tell  you  if  I  were  a  young  lady  I  would  prefer  going  it 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  315 

alone  and  becoming  a  woman  suffragist  to  marrying  a  fel- 
low who  has  old  boon  companions  on  the  outside.  Or,  if 
I  did  marry  him  I  would  go  out  and  shoot  these  old  boon 
companions,  and  then  I  might  be  able  to  call  my  husband 
my  own.  This  advice  to  the  young  ladies  is  from  a  man's 
standpoint  of  course,  but  he  has  several  times  seen  how  this 
old  boon  companion  business  works. 

I  should  like  to  walk  into  this  slick  yard  ten  years  from 
today  and  see  how  things  are — see  if  the  floor  is  kept 
scrubbed  and  the  windows  washed.  I  am  willing  to  wager 
there  will  be  a  change.  At  the  end  of  ten  years  it  will 
likely  be  an  ordinary  old  plug  of  a  country  yard.  I  am 
casting  no  reflections  on  this  yard  man,  but  that  is  precisely 
the  way  the  majority  of  us  lapse.  Surely  he  who  can  hold 
out  faithful  to  the  end  is  entitled  to  the  crown  and  more- 
over he  gets  it. 

I  was  with  a  retail  man  when  he  was  shutting  up  his 
yard  at  night,  and  by  main  strength  he  took  hold  of  the 
gate  and  lifted  it  around  into  position.  The  lower  hinge  was 
broken  off  and  he  was  obliged  to  do  this.  Very  likely,  to 
start  with,  this  same  man  said  in  his  mind  that  he  would  run 
a  model  lumber  yard.  Some  writer  who,  if  he  knew  what 
he  was  talking  about  must  have  been  there,  said  that  hell 
is  paved  with  good  intentions,  and  it  wouldn't  surprise  me 
if  he  spoke  rightly. 

I  can't  imagine  why  swinging  gates  should  be  endured 
around  a  yard,  except  in  those  few  cases  where  none  other 
can  be  used.  The  gate  that  is  hung  from  the  top  and  rolls 
best  answers  the  bill  in  the  long  run.  It  will  save  boards 
and  sizzling  words.  It  will  cost  a  little  more  to  start  with, 
but  in  the  end  it  will  be  a  hundred  times  cheaper. 

The  shed  door  is  akin  to  the  gate.  There  is  a  kind  of  low, 
closed  shed  that  on  one  side  is  nearly  all  doors.  With 
very  few  exceptions  these  doors  are  on  hinges,  open,  out- 
ward of  course,  and  in  a  heavy  wind  are  about  as  controllable 
as  a  kite.  If  you  can  slam  them  shut  quickly  all  right;  if 
not  they  may  slam  you.  When  you  are  sitting  serenely  in 


316  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

your  office  the  first  you  know  away  they  go,  slam  bang ! 
They  are  liable  to  tear  loose  or  make  a  man  think  that 
dynamiters  are  around  his  place.  I  believe  I  have  seen  but 
one  shed  of  this  style  with  rolling  doors  which  could  be 
opened  six  inches,  or  three  feet,  and  at  all  times  and  in  all 
kinds  of  weather  stay  open.  Said  the  man  who  had  this 
shed,  "I  can  handle  these  doors  from  the  inside.  I  do  not 
have  to  go  but  in  a  driving  rain  to  close  them,  and  I  am 
not  trembling  lest  a  wind  storm  blow  them  over  into  the 
next  county."  T  almost  feel  like  risking  the  little  reputation 
I  have  by  saying  that  they  are  a  great  improvement  on  the 
old  kind  that  swings. 

A  yard  man  called  my  attention  to  the  doors  on  his 
closed  shed.  'T  have  no  more  double  doors,"  he  said,  "for 
a  single  one  answers  the  purpose  much  better.  I  used  to 
have  two  doors,  but  I  have  got  through  with  them.  They 
would  never  meet  in  any  kind  of  shape,  and  then  to  be 
securely  held  at  the  bottom  there  ought  to  be  a  slotted  post 
for  them  to  slide  into,  and  that  is  always  in  the  way.  It 
takes  no  longer  to  open  a  single  door  than  it  does  one  of  a 
pair."  Then  he  wanted  me  to  "just  place  one  finger"  on  the 
door  and  see  how  easily  it  rolled.  It  was  a  rather  tough 
proposition  for  that  one  finger  to  push  it,  still  it  rolled  easily 
for  a  door  of  that  size. 

"I  never  have  any  trouble  with  my  doors  except  with 
that  of  my  safe,"  said  a  yard  man  who  was  tapped  on  the 
subject  of  doors.  "That  opens  and  lets  all  the  money  out 
of  it." 


TAKING  WINTER  EASY. 

There  are  numberless  yard  n: en  who  buy  from  hand  to 
mouth.  They  want  no  more  stock  on  hand  than  will  serve 
their  purpose  for  a  short  period.  It  was  really  pleasing  to 
meet  a  dealer  whose  method  is  different  from  this.  Said  he : 
"When  it  comes  winter  T  want  a  stock  that  will  carry  me 
through.  T  don't  want  to  be  bothered  every  week  hunting 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

through  my  stock  and  piecing  up  on  this  or  that  grade.  In 
fact,  I  want  to  take  the  dull  season  quietly.  I  want  to  take 
the  winter  coolly — in  the  best  sense  of  that  word." 

I  had  not  before  heard  a  yard  man  talk  just  like  that. 
You  rarely  hear  a  business  man  express  the  opinion  that  he 
ought  to  inject  rest  or  comfort  into  his  business.  He  thinks 
he  must  be  on  the  jump.  If  he  rest,  it  must  be  away  from 
business.  He  must  go  to  the  mountains  or  seashore.  Get 
away  from  home,  that  is  the  idea.  Now,  as  a  rule,  is  it  better 
to  do  this,  or  so  live  as  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  it  ?  I  have 
been  in  the  homes  of  many  lumbermen.  They  had  pleasant 
families,  pictures,  books  in  profusion,  finely  appointed 
rooms ;  and  seeing  these  I  have  wondered  where  else  on 
earth  they  could  get  so  much  quiet  and  comfort  if  only  they 
would  not  tear  themselves  in  pieces  outside  so  they  were 
incapable  of  home  enjoyment. 

More  and  more  I  become  enamored  of  the  man  who  so 
adjusts  the  machinery  of  life  as  to  overcome  all  friction  pos- 
sible. I  like  the  man  who  does  not  wear  his  body  and  mind 
out,  and  the  mind  will  take  care  of  itself  if  the  body  is  kept 
in  ship  shape.  If  we  live  rationally  the  mind  keeps  on  top, 
just  the  place  it  should  be.  I  don't  like  to  see  the  fever  of 
business  burn  the  good  red  blood  out.  On  my  rounds  there 
is  a  yard  man  whom  many  of  you  know.  He  says  there  is 
always  a  place  for  an  extra  plate  at  his  table,  and  more  than 
once  that  plate  has  been  set  before  me.  The  home  is  an  ele- 
gant one,  and  I  have  observed  that  the  prime  object  of  it  is 
comfort.  It  is  a  fine  looker,  but  it  wasn't  built  for  people  to 
look  at.  The  parlor,  with  its  expensive  furnishings,  is  none 
too  good  even  to  smoke  in;  and  I  have  observed  that  the 
good  wife  does  not  object  to  smoke  in  the  room.  She  does 
not  say,  "O,  dear,  how  the  cigar  smoke  does  make  my  cur- 
tains smell !"  I  think  in  a  home  a  mighty  sight  depends  on 
the  wife.  I  don't  know  but  it  is  almost  as  much  of  a  duty 
to  make  her  home  pleasant  as  it  is  to  vote.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  some  men  are  eager  to  be  somewhere  except  home.  This 
man  does  an  immense  amount  of  business.  He  is  fat,  too. 


318  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

He  looks  as  though  he  could  keep  right  on  for  fifty  years 
yet.  The  genuine  comforts  of  his  home,  I  imagine,  are  a 
foil  to  the  cares  of  business  life.  Every  hour  he  puts  in  there 
is  a  tonic. 

In  our  condition  of  culture  and  civilization  there  are 
many  things  which  do  not  pay.  At  the  time  we  think 
they  are  the  stuff,  but  later  on  we  learn  with  regret  that  they 
have  consumed.  The  mad  rush  leads  to  madness — no  logic 
can  get  around  that.  Therefore  the  attitude  of  this  yard  man 
who  wants  to  put  in  the  winter  with  as  little  care  as  possible 
in  order  that  he  may  go  forth  refreshed  in  the  spring,  I  say, 
is  a  sane  idea.  He  does  not  consider  that  the  interest  on  the 
stock  that  he  may  not  use  this  month  or  next  is  money 
thrown  to  the  dogs,  but  rather  as  a  means  to.  comfort  and 
recuperation. 


SENSELESS  OBJECTION  TO  DOORS. 

We  were  talking  about  doors,  and  the  yard  man  said  he 
had  a  door  he  wanted  to  show  me.  Going  into  a  rear  room 
he  brought  out  one  that  came  from  the  far  west  and  sat  it  up 
against  the  wall. 

"What  do  you  think  of  it  ?"  he  asked. 

"I  think  it  is  a  fine  door,"  I  replied,  in  a  breezy  business 
way,  cracking  it  with  my  knuckles;  and  a  fine  door  it  was, 
clear  as  a  quill  and  well  manufactured. 

"Are  you  selling  many  of  them?"  I  inquired. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "and  I  would  sell  more  of  them  if  it 
wasn't  for  the  carpenters" — though  in  reality  his  reply  had 
a  dash  of  sulphur  in  it. 

Then  to  get  in  the  right  mood  to  tell  his  story,  he 
stepped  around  in  a  fidgety  way  and  said  that  as  a  rule  the 
carpenter  is  an  oracle ;  that  he  knows  more  than  the  rest  of 
mankind  and  doesn't  know  how  little  he  knows  himself.  I 
told  him  that  was  one  of  the  best  definitions  of  the  average 
carpenter  I  had  ever  heard.  "One  of  them  was  in  here 
this  forenoon,"  he  said,  "a  young  sprig  who  had  been  car- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


319 


pentering  as  many  as  two  years.  He  had  been  building 
a  little  addition  to  a  house  and  wanted  two  inside  doors.  I 
told  him  I  had  a  daisy,  a  cedar  door,  and  showed  him 
these.  I  had  no  sooner  set  them  out  than  his  nose  went 
up.  He  said  he  wouidn't  use  those  doors  if  they  were 
given  to  him.  I  asked  him  why,  and  then  he  was  in  a  box. 
He  didn't  know  why  he  didn't  like  them.  I  doubt  if  ever 
before  he  had  seen  a  cedar  door.  Where  I  was  green  was 
that  I  ought  to  have  kept  the  fact  between  my  teeth  that 


"His  nose  went  up." 

the  doors  were  cedar.  I  believe  then  I  would  have  sold 
them." 

"Off  the  same  piece  of  cloth  as  the  carpenter's  objec- 
tion to  hemlock,"  I  remarked. 

"Precisely,"  said  he,  "and  I  remember  still  the  story 
you  told  of  the  Chicago  dealer  who  sold  hemlock  under 
the  name  of  'rock  pine.'  That  was  a  good  way  to  treat 
them." 

A  man  to  keep  up  with  the  times  must  carry  a  variety  of 


320  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

doors  these  days.  Pine  in  the  white  of  the  different  grades 
and  sizes,  grained  doors,  front  doors,  cedar,  doors  with 
yellow  pine  panels,  storm  and  screen  doors — and  maybe 
some  of  them  may  have  gotten  away  from  me.  The  first  I 
had  to  do  with  a  retail  lumber  yard,  the  stock  of  doors  could 
be  carried  off  on  a  strong  man's  back,  but  it  is  a  poorly 
equipped  yard  now  that  does  not  have  piled  in  the  stock 
room  as  many  as  two  horses  could  draw.  And  that  is  the 
growing  tendency  right  along  in  the  retail  business — 
variety. 

I  sometimes  think  that  the  single  yard  man  at  some 
cross-roads  town  where  little  is  known  about  the  style  in 
"wood  goods,"  to  quote  our  English  friends,  has  a  snap. 
In  larger  towns  where  competition  is  as  hot  as  a  pepper 
pod,  one  dealer  desiring  to  get  in  under  the  skins  of  the 
others  will  introduce  a  new  article  which  can  be  sold  a  lit- 
tle cheaper  than  the  old  one,  or  sometimes  for  the  novelty 
of  it.  The  others  finding  this  out  will  follow  suit,  and 
thus  the  varieties  pile  up;  and  I  do  not  imagine  the  end  is 
yet. 


CANCELING   AND   REGISTERING   ORDERS. 

A  yard  man  said  he  had  quit  buying  of  a  house  of 
which  first  and  last  he  had  bought  a  pile  of  lumber,  for  the 
reason  that  it  did  not  stand  by  the  prices  quoted  by  its 
salesman.  I  told  him  I  would  have  quit,  too.  This  is  one 
of  several  similar  complaints  I  have  heard.  There  are  cer- 
tain wholesalers  who  send  out  traveling  men,  and  then 
when  the  occasion  suits  them  use  their  own  sweet  will  as 
to  whether  they  will  fill  the  orders  turned  in  at  the  prices 
quoted  by  the  salesman  to  the  yard  man.  I  do  not  say 
they  do  this  as  a  steady  diet,  but  they  do  it  all  the  same. 
I  know  there  are  two  sides  to  every  story,  but  in  at  least 
one  of  these  cases  the  evidence  was  so  plain  that  there  is 
no  earthly  doubt  that  the  wholesale  dealer  flew  the  track. 

"I  wanted  the  lumber,"  said  the  vard  man,  "and  about 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  321 

the  time  I  expected  it  was  on  the  way  to  me  I  received  a 
polite  letter  stating  that  the  agent  had  inadvertently  quoted 
me  a  price  at  which  it  could  not  be  furnished.  Inadver- 
tently! There  was  no  inadvertency  about  it.  The  agent 
evidently  turned  the  question  over  in  his  mind  before  he 
gave  me  the  price.  He  quoted  it  deliberately,  and  repeated 
it  two  or  three  times." 

Now,  I  like  both  a  man  and  a  mouse.  In  a  way  a 
mouse  is  as  marvelous  a  creation  as  a  man.  It  is  Whit- 
man, I  believe,  who  says  that  a  mouse  will  put  a  billion 
infidels  to  flight.  But  the  mouse  that  I  like  goes  on  four 
legs,  and  has  fur.  When  I  see  a  mouse  walking  around 
on  two  legs  and  wearing  a  hat  I  have  no  admiration  for  it. 
And  when  a  wholesale  dealer  in  lumber,  or  any  other  com- 
modity, will  repudiate  the  prices  given  by  his  authorized 
salesman,  he  comes  mighty  near,  without  "calling  names, 
being  a  close  imitation  of  the  little  fellows  that  my  best 
girl  these  days  is  trying  to  bait  with  cheese  and  crush  to 
death  in  the  cellar. 

Legally,  you  of  course  know  how  the  matter  stands. 
Morally,  you  ought  to  know  how  it  stands,  and  any  man 
who  will  stand  off  both  legal  and  moral  obligations  is  a 
tough  breed  of  cats.  There  is  no  question  but  that  these 
articles  are  read  as  thoroughly  by  wholesale  dealers  as  by 
yard  men,  and  I  want  to  ask  them  how  many  of  their  num- 
ber would  refuse  to  fill  an  order  because  they  thought  they 
ought  to  have  $2  a  thousand  more  than  it  was  sold  for  by 
their  agent?  Unfortunately  we  can't  hear  the  reply,  but  I 
will  take  the  liberty  to  answer  the  question.  Mighty  few ! 
From  Dan  to  Bersheba  I  know  the  wholesale  men  pretty 
well,  and  I  wouldn't  know  where  to  put  my  finger  on  three 
of  them  who,  in  my  opinion,  would  not  stay  by  their  trav- 
eling men  night  and  day.  I  am  acquainted  with  wholesale 
men  who,  I  know,  should  their  agent  sell  Bill  Jones,  of 
Podtink,  a  car  of  dimension  today  for  20  cents  a  thousand, 
that  car  would  be  delivered  just  as  promptly  as  though  it 
were  sold  at  list  prices.  Why  would  it?  First,  for  the 


322 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


reason  that  these  wholesale  men  are  not  mice,  and  second, 
that  they  have  confidence  that  their  traveling  men  have 
a  judgment  of  their  own,  and  would  not  humiliate  them  if 
you  would  give  them  a  car  of  lumber.  And  do  you  ever 
think,  when  you  are  in  the  thinking  business,  how  humiliat- 
ing it  must  be  to  a  salesman  to  take  an  order,  and  then 
have  the  "old  man"  say  in  effect,  "O,  you  blank  fool;  we 
can't  stand  by  any  such  thing  as  that!"  As  much  of  a 
rhinosceros  hide  as  I  have  I  wouldn't  be  placed  in  that  posi- 


"Sitting  in  a  hotel  with  a  salesman." 

tion  for  a  four-dollar  bill.  If  you  have  no  faith  in  your 
traveling  man  call  him  in  and  advise  him  to  go  to  a  kinder- 
garten, but  for  pity  sake  don't  make  him  so  ashamed  of 
himself  by  your  mousey  conduct  that  he  wouldn't  want  to 
look  a  locomotive  in  the  face. 

The  other  evening  I  was  sitting  in  a  hotel  with  a  sales- 
man, he  smoking  a  cigar  and  I  chewing  one,  and  the  coun- 
terpart of  this  question  was  the  subject  of  our  talk.  I  like 
to  fall  in  with  these  traveling  salesmen,  for  to  a  man  they 
treat  me  well  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  No  man  is  more 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  323 

companionable  than  the  one  on  the  road,  no  matter  whether 
he  may  sell  lumber  or  lumber  wagons.  The  "open  road," 
as  a  poet  has  termed  it,  gives  a  heartiness  and  broadness 
to  a  fellow  that  I  sometimes  think  is  never  acquired  under 
a  roof.  These  salesmen  are  not  always  to  the  pains,  how- 
ever, to  let  me  in  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  situation — the 
villains!  Thus,  the  other  day,  I  asked  one  of  them  how 
prices  were,  and  he  said  they  were  so  stiff  that  the  hand  of 
fate  couldn't  bend  them.  I  didn't  dispute  him,  but  the  joke 
of  it  was  that  not  three  hours  before  I  had  seen  invoices 
from  this  very  salesman's  house,  of  bills  sold  by  this  very 
salesman,  and — but  never  mind.  Yard  men  all  over  this 
section  of  the  country  show  me  their  invoices,  and  I  wish 
I  knew  everything  there  is  to  be  known  in  this  world  as 
definitely  as  I  know  the  price  at  which  lumber  is  selling 
in  many  instances. 

We  were  talking  about  the  yard  man  canceling  orders, 
and  I  tell  you,  my  friends,  there  is  a  sin  to  look  after,  and 
root  up,  on  our  side  of  the  house.  This  salesman  didn't 
put  it  in  my  ear,  either.  I  have  known  it  right  along.  The 
plain  and  stubborn  fact  is  that  a  yard  man  has  no  more 
right  to  cancel  an  order  than  a  wholesale  man  has  not  to 
fill  one.  They  are  of  the  same  stripe.  They  are  twin 
brothers,  and  I  would  never  think  of  spanking  one  of 
them  without  giving  it  to  the  other.  A  yard  man  brought 
up  this  subject  on  the  street  not  long  ago.  "When  a  dealer 
orders  a  bill  of  lumber  it  is  a  contract  which  should  not 
be  violated,"  said  he.  "The  best  way  is  to  have  it  put 
down  in  black  and  white,  so  there  may  be  no  doubt  or  mis- 
understanding." 

That  is  business  on  the  level.  Yet  I  have  known  yard 
men,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  who  today  would  give  an  order  for 
a  bill  of  lumber  and  tomorrow  as  coolly  countermand  it. 
I  do  not  say  but  there  are  times  when  it  would  be  to  a 
man's  interest  to  countermand  an  order — one  can  imagine 
such  a  condition — but  at  no  time  can  a  yard  man  honorably 
do  so  and  have  his  finger  exclusively  in  the  pie.  If  I 


324  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

buy  a  car  of  lumber,  and  afterward  find  that  I  do  not  need 
it,  I  have  no  right  to  say  peremptorily  to  the  man  of  whom 
it  was  bought  that  he  need  not  ship  it  to  me.  I  may  ask 
him  not  to  ship  it,  and  then -he  may  grant  the  request  if 
he  so  like.  It  is  a  matter  of  another  agreement,  just  as 
the  purchase  of  the  lumber  was  a  matter  of  agreement. 

This  salesman  said  that  he  had  sold  lumber  and  had 
the  order  in  part  canceled  for  the  reason  that  another 
salesman  who  was  following  in  his  wake  had  underbid 
him.  I  hope  he  is  mistaken.  I  don't  like  to  believe  it.  If 
I  were  a  girl  I  wouldn't  want  to  marry  a  yard  man  who 
would  go  back  on  himself  for  a  matter  of  50  cents  a  thou- 
sand on  a  carload  of  lumber,  for  I  should  expect  that  as 
soon  as  his  love  cooled  a  little  he  would  go  back  on  me. 
Nine  times  in  ten,  or  oftener,  respect  begins  at  home,  and 
if  a  man  has  no  respect  for  himself  look  out  for  him.  If 
a  man  did  not  buy  as  sharp  as  he  might  the  way  would 
be,  I  think,  to  take  the  lumber  and  look  a  little  out  the 
next  time. 

If  I  wanted  to  keep  both  my  financial  and  moral  credit 
good  I  should  think  twice  before  asking  a  wholesale  dealer 
to  cancel  an  order  that  I  had  given  in  cold  blood.  No  mat- 
ter what  good  reason  I  might  have  on  my  part  I  should  be 
thinking  that  the  wholesale  man  might  say,  'That  fool 
hasn't  enough  brains  to  know  what  he  does  want." 

So  you  see,  just  as  we  would  grade  a  board,  we  must 
look  at  this  question  on  both  of  its  sides. 


SALT  IN  SHED  ALLEYS. 

We  all  want  to  do  away  with  dust  in  our  shed  alleys  if 
possible.  We  don't  want  it  spreading  itself  over  the  lum- 
ber. We  don't  want  to  be  made  uncomfortable  by  the  dust 
that  is  kicked  up  when  men  and  teams  are  working  in  the 
sheds.  There  are  alleys  which  closely  resemble  ash  heaps. 
We  dudes  with  nicely  polished  boots  can't  go  the  length  of 
them  without  being  obliged  to  part  with  another  dime  for  a 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


325 


fresh  shine.  Then  it  speaks  so  well  for  a  lumberman  to  have 
everything  in  ship  shape.  When  he  has  a  good  shed,  with 
the  alleys  as  dusty  as  a  public  highway,  it  does  not  look  as 
though  he  had  quite  finished  his  job.  A  few  loads  of  gravel 
or  cinders  would  have  made  it  better. 

All  yard  men  are  not  advocates  of  using  salt  in  alleys. 
There  are  those  who  have  used  it  and  say  the  idea  that  it 
will  down  dust  is  a  humbug.  These  men  are  mistaken;  at 
any  rate  their  assertion  is  too  sweeping.  They  probably 
did  not  properly  apply  the  salt.  They  may  not  have  used 
enough  of  it. 

This  using  of  salt  to  allay  dust  is  an  odd  proposition. 


"For  horses  to  eat." 

anyhow.  When  the  heading,  as  it  stands  above,  had  been 
clicked  off  on  the  typewriter,  my  best  girl  was  called  in  and 
asked  what  she  thought  such  a  thing  could  mean ;  why  lum- 
bermen should  put  salt  in  their  shed  alleys?  "Why,  I  sup- 
pose it  is  for  horses  to  eat!"  she  said.  Select  a  hundred 
novices  and  every  one  of  them  would  say  something  of  that 
kind;  the  thought  would  not  enter  their  heads  that  dust 
could  be  overcome  by  salt. 

There  is  a  precaution  which  must  be  taken  around  these 


326  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

alleys  which  have  received  the  salt  treatment,  however.  If 
lumber  is  piled  along  the  edges  of  them,  as  it  often  is  before 
it  is  put  in  the  bins,  the*  bottom  boards  soon  become  damp. 
Not  long  ago  I  was  in  an  alley  that  was  so  piled  with  lum- 
ber that  a  team  could  hardly  drive  through,  and  the  bins 
were  not  full,  either.  That  man's  alley  ought  to  be  sprinkled 
with  salt  so  he  would  have  to  put  his  lumber  where  it  be- 
longed, for  you  will  probably  agree  with  me  that  an  alley  is 
not  fit  piling  ground. 


ON  THE  ALERT  FOR  TROUBLE. 

We  are  not  so  well  balanced  as  to  warrant  bragging  about 
ourselves.  In  our  school  days  we  study  logic,  and  when  we 
get  out  of  school  we  make  the  same  use  of  logic  that  a  pig 
does.  If  I  thought  you  understood  Dutch  I  should  say  that 
the  entire  business  community  is  on  the  qui  vive  as  to  what 
the  future  shall  bring  forth.  Today  a  yard  man  told  me 
that  trade  had  been  good  this  season,  and  then  he  drew  a 
long  breath  and  remarked  that  he  didn't  know  what  it  would 
be  next ! 

Here  prosperity  is  fairly  tumbling  over  herself  to  get  in 
our  way.  Barring  some  sore  affliction,  if  you  are  not  as 
happy  this  minute  as  you  ever  have  been  it  is  your  own 
fault.  If  that  is  so,  why  not  let  well  enough  alone?  Why 
should  we  be  everlastingly  tapping  the  future,  as  it  were,  to 
see  what  will  run  out  of  it? 

Now  let  me  tell  you  a  thing  that  1  suppose  you  all  know, 
still  I  feel  in  a  mood  to  remind  you  of  it.  These  good  times 
may  continue  for  several  years,  or  they  may  not.  But  it  is 
not  absolutely  necessary  for  the  good  of  the  country  that 
sooner  or  later  they  terminate.  Should  there  be  no  break- 
in  the  present  condition  of  affairs  we  would  all  get  so  rich 
and  high  headed  that  we  wouldn't  work.  We  would  run 
after  false  gods,  wear  none  but  imported  clothes,  take  to  fast 
horses  and  wine,  and  then  the  process  of  decay  would  set  in. 
There  would  be  a  tumble,  and  down  we  would  go  flat  on  our 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  327 

back  just  as  old  Athens  did.  Every  once  in  a  while  you 
strike  a  balance  sheet  to  find  out  where  you  are  at.  Permit- 
ting me  to  judge,  that  is  precisely  what  the  good  Lord  occa- 
sionally is  doing  for  us.  He  is  watching  us  more  closely  all 
the  time  than  we  think  he  is.  When  we  get  too  proud  and 
rich,  and  step  too  high,  he  knocks  the  props  from  under  us, 
and  down  we  come  to  earth  again. 

Suppose,  for  an  instance,  that  those  lumber  manufactur- 
ers up  in  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin  should  keep  right  along 
as  they  have  been  doing  for  a  couple  of  years  ?  In  ten  years 
they  would  own  the  earth,  and  every  mother's  son  of  them 
would  be  in  the  senate.  It  will  not  be  permitted.  By  and  by 
old  Fate,  with  his  lasso,  will  stalk  up  through  that  country 
and  corral  them  again. 

"If  building  will  only  keep  up  for  a  few  years !"  said  a 
yard  man.  I  will  leave  it  to  you,  however,  that  if  this  sea- 
son's volume  of  business  should  keep  up  it  would  not  bring 
about  a^deplorable  condition,  and  in  the  end  be  one  of  the 
worst  things  that  could  come  to  us.  Every  town  would  be 
overbuilt.  Many  a  farmer  would  have  two  houses  on  his 
hands,  and  could  live  in  only  one  of  them.  There  would  be 
empty  elevators,  and  a  surplus  of  railroads.  We  can't  with 
safety  build  much  faster  than  human  beings  come  into  the 
world.  If  we  get  a  little  ahead  of  them  we  must  wait  until 
they  catch  up.  If  they  get  a  little  ahead  of  us  we  can  hurry 
just  as  we  have  been  doing  this  year.  People  and  buildings 
— they  balance  one  another. 

If  I  had  made  $2,000  this  year,  as  a  yard  rhari  has  with 
whom  I  was  talking  the  other  day,  simply  by  the  ad- 
vance of  lumber,  I  wouldn't  be  worrying  over  the 
coming  presidential  year  as  he  is.  I  listened  to 
this  man's  gloomy  forebodings  for  several  minutes  like  a 
good  little  boy,  and  then,  when  I  had  become  tired,  I  could 
not  help  remarking,  "Why,  man,  let's  not  tear  our  undergar- 
ments entirely  off  this  cold  weather,  but  keep  our  powder  as 
dry  as  we  can,  and  patiently  wait." 

Now,  honestly,  I  am  little  in  sympathy  with  this  crazy 


328 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


desire  which  takes  possession  of  so  many  people  to  get 
hold  of  everything  within  their  reach.  They  break  their 
necks  in  a  mad  rush  to  have  another  dollar's  worth  of  goods 
to  pay  taxes  on,  and  the  more  dollars'  worth  they  have  the 
worse  they  lie  to  the  assessor.  That  is  the  way  it  is  with  all 
of  us.  And  this  idiotic  scurry,  too,  by  men  who  have  as 


"The  more  they  lie  to  the  assessor." 

much  money  as  the  law  ought  to  allow.  Don't  you  know  that 
this  life  we  are  now  enjoying  every  day  is  only  a  minute 
section  of  the  same  life  that  will  stretch  on  and  on  through 
years  which  will  be  numberless  as  the  stars?  Then  where 
is  the  sense  in  starting  out  on  such  a  gallop?  If  we  are  not 
careful  we  will  tire  ourselves  out  scoring.  We  need  dollars 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  329 

in  our  pockets,  but  just  as  badly  we  need  patience,  apprecia- 
tion, charity  and  contentment  in  our  heads  and  hearts. 

I  liked  the  way  a  yard  man  talked  a  couple  of  months 
ago.  Said  he,  "I  have  got  over  worrying.  I  can't  look  back 
and  see  where  it  did  me  a  cent's  worth  of  good,  but  on  the 
other  hand  it  did  me  dollars'  worth  of  harm.  Why,  blast  it, 
I  had  nervous  prostration  once  over  a  thing  that  never  hap- 
pened !  For  fifteen  years  I  have  sold  lumber,  and  I  expect 
to  sell  it  as  long  as  I  run  a  yard.  The  lumber  trade  comes 
every  season  as  regularly  as  the  corn  crop — not  every  year 
the  same,  and  if  it  did  it  would  become  monotonous.  Xo 
man  knows  what  is  in  store  for  him.  It  may  not  be  so 
good ;  if  not  grin  and  bear  it,  as  we  have  got  to  any  way. 
It  is  a  mistake  for  any  man  who  means  to  be  light  complex- 
ioned,  and  tends  to  his  business,  to  think  that  it  is  all  bad 
luck  that  is  staring  him  in  the  face.  How  do  I  know  but 
this  town  will  burn  tonight,  and  the  rebuilding  of  it  call  for 
all  the  lumber  I  can  handle  for  six  months  ?  I  got  into  that 
fix  once!" 

I  should  feel  safe  to  give  a  written  guarantee  that  this 
man  who  has  learned  to  take  life  like  a  rational  being,  that 
is,  taking  it  as  it  comes,  and  content  so  to  take  it,  gets  more 
comfort  and  happiness  to  the  square  foot  than  all  the  yard 
men  in  his  country  whose  eyes  are  bulging  to  catch  sight  of 
some  devil  in  the  distance,  and  who  are  prancing  over  the 
highway  of  life  so  niadly  as  to  make  blood  blisters  and  gum- 
boils on  their  feet. 


A  TRADE  PULLER. 

There  is  no  question  in  my  mind  that  the  modern  closed 
shed  pulls  trade.  It  has  the  quality  of  the  magnet.  So  firmly 
am  I  convinced  of  this  that  were  I  to  open  a  new  yard  I 
would  build  a  closed  shed,  provided  always  of  course  that  I 
could  borrow  the  money.  If  the  other  sheds  in  the  town 
were  open,  all  the  more  eager  I  should  be  that  mine  should 
be  unlike  them.  I  should  want  the  shed  a  big  one,  too ;  one 


330  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

that  would  loom  up  like  a  steepled  cathedral.  For  what? 
For  advertising,  as  one  reason.  It  does  not  create  much 
commotion  when  a  fellow  buys  a  few  cars  of  lumber  and 
piles  it  out  on  the  prairie,  but  when  he  starts  in  by  building 
a  great  shed  the  farmer  stares.  He  thinks  that  the  man  \\ho 
is  building  such  a  shed  as  that  is  going  to  bore  with  a  big 
auger,  and  it  is  human  nature  that  he  will  want  to  be  there 
to  catch  some  of  the  chips.  A  yard  man  told  me  that  his 
shed  was  so  much  talked  about  that  farmers  came  twenty 
miles  to  buy  lumber  of  him.  You  may  laugh  in  your  sleeves 
at  a  farmer  who  would  do  this ;  so  might  I,  but  at  the  same 
time  it  would  please  us  to  sell  the  lumber.  Oftentimes  gain 
comes  by  throwing  a  glamor  over  the  minds  of  men.  A 
tight  rope  walker  once  told  me  that  it  was  no  more  difficult 
to  walk  a  rope  fifty  feet  from  the  ground  than  though  it  was 
ten  feet.  "But,"  said  he,  "the  people  think  it  is."  There, 
you  see,  is  the  same  idea — you  want  to  get  the  people  think- 
ing in  a  particular  direction.  A  big  lumber  shed  impresses 
itself  upon  the  mind.  It  is  something  more  than  the  usual, 
something  to  talk  about  and  look  at.  No  matter  how  we 
may  get  business  it  is  through  advertising  of  some  sort, 
though  we  may  call  it  by  some  other  name. 


STORM    DOORS. 

A  storm  door  is  a  new  idea,  comparatively.  Our  fore- 
fathers did  not  know  what  a  storm  door  was.  If  there 
was  one  good  solid  door  between  them  and  the  storm  they 
were  content.  I  have  seen  happy  homes  which  did  not 
have  even  a  panel  door  in  them. 

For  years  storm  doors,  mechanically,  have  been  an 
abomination.  Any  old  thing  was  good  enough  for  such  a 
door,  it  was  thought.  Why  a  storm  door  that  was  in  full 
sight  for  several  months  of  the  year  should  not  present  a 
decent  appearance  was  a  question  not  asked.  After  this  it 
will  be  thought  as  necessary  to  have  a  good  looking  storm 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


331 


door  as  it  is  to  wear  a  sleek  overcoat.  We  common  mor- 
tals never  think  of  doing  a  thing  until  somebody  has  set 
the  pace. 

Then  again,  it  was  not  thought  orthodox  to  have  a  light 
of  glass  in  a  storm  door.  By  all  means  it  must  be  a  solid 
door.  You  never  knew  who  was  knocking  for  admission 
until  the  door  was  opened.  But  in  this  great  age  we  are 
marching  on  and  on,  and  among  other  things  we  have  re- 
organized the  storm  door.  It  is  so  improved  that  it  does 
not  look  like  a  relative  to  the  one  that  was  in  use  even  three 
or  four  years  ago. 


"Samples  standing  out  in  front." 

The  yards  are  making  something  of  a  point  selling 
storm  doors  these  days.  In  one  week  I  saw  samples  stand- 
ing out  in  front  of  more  than  twenty-five  lumber  offices. 
That  is  the  way  to  do  it,  too.  It  would  not  injure  the  busi- 
ness of  the  average  lumberman  if  he  would  make  more  of  a 


332  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

display  of  some  of  his  goods.  His  brother  merchants  beat 
him  out  of  sight  in  this  regard.  What  if  the  yard  man 
bought  a  bundle  of  storm  doors  and  tucked  them  away  in 
his  sash  and  door  room?  Nobody  except  some  one  who 
might  make  the  inquiry  would  know  he  had  them.  An 
acquaintance  of  mine  had  a  carpenter  make  a  storm  door 
for  him  last  fall.  I  asked  him  why  he  did  not  go  over  to 
one  of  the  lumber  yards  and  get  a  door  that  looked  like 
something,  and  he  said  he  had  not  supposed  they  kept 
them !  That  is  the  way  it  goes  when  we  hide  our  light  un- 
der a  bushel. 

These  doors  I  see  around  the  country  are  marked  to 
sell  at  from  $1.75  to  $2  each.  They  are  a  good  looking 
panel  door,  with  a  good  sized  light  of  glass  in  them,  and 
many  of  them  are  grained.  One  yard  man  carried  them 
both  grained  and  in  the  white.  He  said  the  white  was  the 
better  seller,  for  as  a  rule  the  door  was  painted  to  match 
the  color  of  the  house.  Said  he,  "I  have  had  no  luck  with 
grained  doors  of  any  kind.  There  seems  to  be  no  place  for 
them  to  fit  in.  Then  there  is  no  graining  done  nowadays 
anyway.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  grained  door  came  in 
about  twenty  years  too  late." 

That  is  a  fact,  there  is  no  graining  done  now  except  on 
these  doors,  still  there  are  yard  men  who  have  told  me 
they  are  among  their  best  sellers. 


I 
LOCATION  AND  COMPETITION. 

I  listened  to  a  conversation  on  the  subject  of  yard  loca- 
tion that  was  interesting.  A  salesman  could  not  get  out  of 
town  until  evening,  the  yard  man  was  not  busy,  so  they  told 
stories  and  talked  about  the  lumber  business.  I  cannot  re- 
peat the  stories,  for  it  is  a  peculiarity  of  mine  that  I  am  un- 
able to  remember  a  story  over  night.  I  have  often  regretted 
it ;  I  have  tried  to  train  myself  to  the  contrary,  but  it  is  no 
use :  they  won't  stick.  I  hear  stories  every  day,  and  of  the 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


333 


thousands  that  with  joy  and  pleasure  to  which  I  have  list- 
ened I  know  that  I  couldn't  repeat  a  dozen  of  them  if  I  was 
to  be  hanged  for  it.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  memory,  and  I 
don't  know  what  it  is.  On  the  other  hand,  I  could  listen  to 
lumber  gossip  for  hours,  and  without  taking  a  note  to  assist 
me  would  guarantee  to  produce  it  almost  verbatim.  I  wish 
somebody  would  tell  me  what  section  of  my  old  thinker  is 
out  of  tune. 

The  salesman  said  he  was  occasionally  asked  where  there 


"Talked  about  the  lumber  business." 

is  an  opening  for  a  yard,  but  that  at  present  he  knew  of  no 
good  one.  It  appeared  to  him  that  there  is  a  surplus  of 
yards.  If  he  was  bound  to  put  in  a  yard  he  would  go  into 
one  of  the  new  towns  on  some  of  the  railroads  which  are 
building.  He  would  expect  to  have  plenty  of  competition, 
but  being  on  the  ground  as  soon  as  any  of  them  he  would 
stand  a  better  chance  than  though  we  were  to  camp  alongside 
of  dealers  who  already  had  an  acquaintance  and  an  estab- 
lished trade. 


334  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

"What  advantage  has  a  new  yard?"  I  ventured  to  ask. 

"Well,"  replied  the  salesman,  evidently  weighing  his 
words,  "it  has  a  slight  advantage  in  being  new.  You  know 
the  old  adage  about  the  new  broom.  There  are  people  who 
will  go  to  a  new  business  place  expecting  that  the  man  who 
is  running  it  will  make  some  concessions  in  order  to  get 
trade.  If  I  started  a  new  yard  I  should  not  expect  to  get 
on  much  unless  I  did  make  concessions.  First  of  all,  I 
should  aim  to  pool ;  and  if  that  couldn't  be  done  I  should 
aim  to  undersell  the  other  fellows,  and  then  to  my  sorrow," 
he  continued  with  a  laugh,  "the  other  fellows  might  aim  to 
undersell  me." 

The  yard  man  remarked  that  ordinarily  he  should  be  very 
"skeery"  about  starting  a  yard.  "I  should  prefer,  ten  to  one, 
to  buy  a  yard  out,"  he  said.  "I  have  had  experience  of  both 
kinds,  and  I  should  prefer  to  buy.  If  a  man  should  buy  out 
my  neighbor  I  should  regard  him  as  a  legitimate  competitor 
and  meet  him  on  that  ground,  but  if  anybody  should  put  in 
a  third  yard  here  I  have  an  idea  that  the  pots  of  war  paint 
would  be  brought  out." 

No  doubt  the  result  would  be  about  as  the  dealer  por- 
trayed it,  still  it  amused  me  to  hear  him  talk  about  a  "legiti- 
mate competitor !"  The  country  is  full  of  people  who  ought 
to  read  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  declara- 
tion of  independence. 

In  this  talk  about  location  and  competition  I  thought  that 
the  salesman  and  yard  man  overlooked  an  important  phase 
of  the  question.  They  did  not  say  a  word  about  the  differ- 
ence there  is  in  competitors.  No  doubt  I  have  said  before 
that  in  my  opinion  the  success  of  a  new  yard  man  depends  as 
much  on  the  nature  of  his  competitors  as  on  the  location. 

Location  is  of  importance,  but  it  isn't  everything.  There 
are  retail  lumbermen  who  are  genuine  bull  dogs,  and  who 
will  hang  on  until  their  backs  are  broken.  There  are  others 
in  whom  there  is  no  fight.  They  may  be  quakers,  and  pos- 
sibly cowards.  There  are  those  who  would  look  at  you  ask- 
ance if  you  had  the  cheek  to  attempt  to  sell  boards  in  a  town 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  335 

on  the  trade  of  which  they  think  they  have  a  mortgage,  and 
still  others  who  would  make  the  best  of  it  and  treat  you  like 
a  gentleman.  Hence,  I  say,  if  I  were  intending  to  start  a 
yard  in  a  town  I  should  first  of  all  make  a  study  of  the  men 
already  selling  lumber  there.  I  would  endeavor  to  size  them 
up.  If  they  had  heavy  jaws  and  looked  as  though  they  might 
easily  be  converted  into  a  thunderstorm  I  might  count  the 
ties  on  to  the  next  town.  I  know  of  towns  which  at  first 
blush  you  would  say  would  afford  business  for  more  yards, 
but  if  you  or  I  should  put  one  in  there  our  hides  would  be 
stripped  from  our  back,  or  the  other  fellow's  would.  I 
know  of  other  towns  in  which,  if  I  felt  so  disposed,  I  would 
not  hesitate  a  moment  to  put  in  a  yard.  The  character  of 
the  dealers  in  these  towns  would  influence  my  decision.  It's 
men  that  make  history,  and  sometimes  they  make  one  kind 
and  sometimes  another. 


SLOW  PAYING  FARMERS. 

There  was  a  time  when  I  labored  under  the  delusion  that 
collections  were  the  barometer  of  the  degree  of  prosperity, 
but  I  have  gotten  bravely  over  it.  It  holds  true  only  in 
minor  part.  A  man  may  be  very  prosperous,  yet  travel  as 
slow  as  a  mud  turtle  up  to  the  captain's  desk  to  settle  his 
bill.  The  farmers  are  owing  the  yard  men  of  this  country 
a  mint  of  money,  yet  many  of  these  farmers  have  money  to 
burn.  "The  better  off  the  farmer  becomes  the  slower  he  is 
to  pay,"  a  dealer  remarked  who  is  located  in  a  very  fine  agri- 
cultural district.  "They  know  they  are  good;  they  think 
you  know  they  are  good,  and  consequently  they  want  time 
until  it  wearies  me." 

I  somewhat  doubt  if  a  knowledge  of  the  financial  status 
of  the  western  farmer  is  common  property.  In  conversation 
with  a  banker  on  this  point,  he  said :  "It  may  not  be  gener- 
ally known  that  the  man  who  can  secure  a  mortgage  on  real 
estate  for  5  percent  is  indebted  to  the  farmer  for  that  low 


336  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

rate  of  interest.  It  isn't  the  banker  who  has  knocked  the 
rate.  A  large  amount  of  eastern  money  has  come  in  here, 
but  that  hasn't  done  it.  Had  the  farmer  been  obliged  to 
come  to  the  bank  for  his  loans  interest  would  be  higher  than 
it  is  today.  As  it  is  the  farmer  loans  money  to  the  farmer. 
The  farmers  have  been  pulling  a  good  deal  of  money  out  of 
Mother  Earth,  and  they  know  of  no  place  where  they  can 
place  the  surplus  so  safely  as  in  a  mortgage  on  their  neigh- 
bor's farm.  In  their  effort  to  do  this  they  have  underbid  the 
banks.  When  we  were  getting  8  percent  they  went  us  a 
cent  better.  Then  we  dropped  to  7  and  they  dropped  to  6. 
We  went  to  6  and  the  farmer  said  to  his  neighbor  5.  We 
have  come  to  5,  and  whether  the  farmer  will  come  to  4  is  an 
open  question,  though  it  wouldn't  surprise  me  if  he  did.  Yes, 
sir,  the  farmer  has  set  the  rate  of  interest  on  mortgage  loans 
throughout  this  whole  section  of  country." 

I  have  made  inquiry  concerning  the  deposits  of  the  farm- 
ers in  some  of  the  towns.  In  a  place  of  5,000  inhabitants  I 
was  told  by  a  banker  that  the  "man  with  the  hoe"  had  $325,- 
ooo  in  the  banks.  In  a  very  moderate  sized  town  a  grange 
bank  was  opened,  and  the  manager  of  it  said  if  the  deposits 
to  start  with  were  $50,000  he  would  be  satisfied,  but  in  less 
than  three  weeks  there  was  an  even  five  times  that  amount. 
In  several  towns  I  have  looked  into  this  matter,  and  in  every 
instance  the  figures  have  indicated  hundreds  of  thousands. 

We  need  not  lie  awake  nights  worrying  over  the  con- 
dition of  the  farmer.  During  all  the  years  that  I  spuddled 
around  in  a  porcelain  bath  tub  in  a  city  I  was  given  to  re- 
garding the  farmer  somewhat  as  the  caricaturist,  who  wears 
his  spring  overcoat  all  winter  and  sells  jokes  for  10  cents 
each  to  the  newspapers,  painted  him.  But  I  tell  you,  my 
city  friends,  you  don't  know  the  farmer.  You  underrate 
him  every  day  of  your  life.  I  wish  every  man  who  lives  in 
a  brown  stone  or  marble  front  felt  as  independent  as  does 
the  farmer  who  wears  his  sheepskin  jacket  and  German 
socks.  This  farmer  feels  that  so  far  as  this  world  is  con- 
cerned he  is  perched  right  on  the  rock  of  ages,  and  that  it  is 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  337 

not  necessary  to  sharpen  his  finger  and  toe  nails  every  day 
to  keep  a  hold,  either. 

"But  he  won't  pay;  darn  him,  he  won't  pay!"  said  a  yard 
man.  "I  have  a  customer  who  .owns  2,000  acres  of  land, 
every  acre  of  it  clear.  Let's  see !  That  land  is  worth  $40  an 
acre,  $80,000  all  told.  Then  he  has  so  many  cattle  you  can't 
count  them.  When  he  owes  a  bill  for  lumber  it  is  worth  a 
good  commission  to  get  it.  He  will  pay  no  more  attention  to 
a  statement  than  though  it  was  a  yaller  dog.  Yet  when  I  go 
for  him,  and  can  find  him,  he  will  pull  out  his  check  book 
with  the  blandest  smile  on  his  face  you  ever  seen.  I  can't 
sue  him ;  that  wouldn't  do.  You  couldn't  pull  a  note  out  of 
him  with  a  log  chain.  He  is  away  to  Omaha  or  Kansas  City 
nearly  as  much  as  he  is  at  home,  and  I  may  drive  out  to  his 
place  a  dozen  times  without  seeing  him.  That's  the  way  it 
goes." 

"How  much  interest  do  you  get  out  of  the  farmers  on 
accounts  which  run  from  six  to  twelve  months?"  I  asked. 

"Not  on  an  average  of  i  percent,"  was  the  reply. 

There  are  dealers  who  will  not  sell  lumber  on  any  such 
terms,  but  there  are  always  others,  and  these  others  will  sell 
it  on  any  old  terms. 

It  is  the  bane  of  the  life  of  some  yard  men  that  they  can- 
not collect  in  a  way  at  all  to  their  liking.  Within  a  week  I 
walked  through  a  shed  that  was  well  filled  with  lumber. 
This  man  knows  me  pretty  well  and  does  not  hesitate  to 
tell  me  things  that  perhaps,  on  first  sight,  you  wouldn't.  He 
said  with  some  show  of  pride,  "I  don't  owe  a  cent  on  this 
stock." 

"Blamed  glad  to  hear  it."  I  said. 

"But  I  wouldn't  let  my  customers  know  that,"  he  con- 
tinued. "When  I  collect  I  go  out  with  a  handful  of  bills 
and,  wanting  some  excuse  to  prod  them,  I  must  tell  them 
that  I  have  bills  coming  due  which  must  be  paid !" 

Then  we  sat  down  by  the  stove,  stuck  our  feet  on  the 
fender,  and  talked  about  the  cussedness  in  human  nature 
that  holds  us  back  from  paying  our  debts  when  they  are  due. 


338  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

THE  RIGHT  KIND  OF  STATIONERY. 

The  stationery  of  many  a  yard  man  needs  to  be  over- 
hauled. The  last  time  I  came  home  from  a  trip  a  letter 
awaited  me,  and  on  the 'sheet  it  was  announced  that  So- 
and-so  sold  lumber  at  such  a  place.  Thus  far  it  was 
proper,  but  this  information  was  put  on  with  a  rubber 
stamp,  and  that  did  seem  as  improper  to  me  as  the  very  Old 
Harry.  If  that  yard  man  felt  as  I  do  he  would  take  that 
stamp  and  grind  it  under  his  heel.  Why?  Because  in  the 
eyes  of  a  business  man  who  has  seen  a  part  of  the  world 
and  is  half  up  to  its  best  ways  this  printing  by  means  of  a 
rubber  stamp  is  an  abomination.  The  job  looks  as  if  it  had 
been  struck  by  a  very  miserable  kind  of  lightning.  It  is  the 
looks  of  the  thing  I  object  to. 

Now  suppose  I  should  come  around  to  see  you  looking 
like  a  tramp — dirty  face,  whiskers  half  an  inch  long,  holes 
in  the  knees  of  my  pants,  overcoat  looking  as  though  I  had 
made  my  bed  in  the  alley,  what  would  you  think  of  me? 
What  impression  would  it  give  you  of  the  concern  that 
sends  me  out?  You  would  get  off  in  the  corner  and 
whisper  to  yourself,  "Well,  if  that  isn't  the  blankest  thing 
that  ever  happened!''  You  see,  it  wouldn't  do.  It  would 
be  doing  everybody  concerned  rank  injustice.  On  one  trip 
I  was  asked  by  one  lumberman  to  go  to  church  with  him, 
by  another  to  go  to  his  home  to  dinner,  by  another  to  go 
to  a  charity  ball.  Unless  I  dressed  in  the  hight  of  fashion 
I  would  get  no  chance  at  these  swell  functions.  Go  into 
the  wholesale  districts  and  see  what  fine  offices  they  have, 
what  pretty  typewriters,  what  beautiful  stationery.  When 
a  letter  over  which  a  rubber  stamp  has  slobbered  is  fired 
into  one  of  these  elegant  offices  I  imagine  it  is  regarded  as 
you  would  regard  me  if  I  should  stumble  into  your  place 
dressed  like  a  Weary  Willie. 

This  is  not  saying  that  all  of  you  can  have  well  printed 
stationery  right  away.  Having  been  associated  with  print- 
ing houses  more  or  less  I  know  the  shortcomings  of  an 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  339 

occasional  country  printer.  It  is  not  unusual  for  him  to 
turn  out  a  job  that  looks  as  though  a  mule's  hoof  had  been 
inked  and  he  had  kicked  against  a  sheet  of  paper.  But 
notwithstanding  your  job  may  be  poor,  if  it  came  from  a 
printing  office  you  have  shown  your  good  intentions.  The 
blame  then  rests  on  the  printer.  Don't  put  up  with  such  a 
job  the  second  time  though.  Talk  turkey  to  the  printer, 
as  we  boys  used  to  say.  Tell  him  that  by  the  long-horned 
spoon  if  he  doesn't  grease  up  his  old  press  and  turn  you 
out  decent  work  you  will  go  to  Chicago,  Minneapolis,  Mil- 
waukee, St.  Louis  for  it.  Should  you  carry  out  your  threat 
the  editor  would  probably  run  in  a  letter,  signed  by  "Old 
Citizen,"  asking  how  a  town  can  get  along  when  its  people 
send  away  for  their  goods?  Never  you  mind  that,  though. 
Self-protection  is  the  first  law  of  nature,  and  protecting 
yourself  is  what  you  are  doing  when  by  sending  out  good- 
looking  stationery  you  create  tke  impression  that  you  are 
a  man  of  success  and  good  taste. 

I  hope  the  man  who  sent  me  the  letter  won't  feel  bad.    I 
like  him,  but  I  don't  like  his  old  rubber  stamp  a  bit. 


AN  OVER-ACTIVE  RETAILER. 

The  art  of  doing  things  by  proxy  is  an  important  ac- 
complishment. Not  once  in  a  thousand  times  will  your 
individual  labor  or  mine  elevate  us  to  any  marked  extent  in 
the  financial  world.  In  that  world  much  depends  on  so 
manipulating  the  services  of  others  that  they  may  accrue 
to  our  benefit.  The  labor  of  man  is  an  article  of  commerce. 
There  are  few  people  so  philanthropic  that  they  will  pay 
me  $i  a  day  unless  they  expect  to  make  a  profit  by  the 
transaction.  Before  you  would  buy  and  sell  lumber  at  the 
same  price  you  would  go  fishing,  to  the  almshouse,  or  some- 
where else.  I  believe  the  proposition  thus  far  is  clear,  but 
when  we  go  farther  and  ask,  "What  profit  should  one  man 
make  on  the  labor  of  another?"  we  are  brought  up  against 


340  REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 

a  question  which  will  be  settled  only  by  the  God  of  Justice. 
We  will  never  settle  it  for  the  simple  reason  that  we  have 
no  desire  to  do  so.  When  I  say  we,  I  mean  man  collec- 
tively. Occasionally  there  is  a  rare  exception  to  the  rule, 
but  as  a  whole  we  are  grasping,  selfish,  and  little  care 
whether  our  neighbor's  bread  is  buttered  on  either  side  if 
ours  is  buttered  on  both. 

I  had  no  intention  of  starting  in  so  seriously,  but  I  have 
a  little  boil  on  my  ear  this  week  and  it  drives  me  to  heavy 
themes.  I  want  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  utter  fool- 
ishness of  any  man  in  the  lumber  business,  or  out  of  it, 
trying  to  do  everything  himself.  A  few  days  ago  I  saw  a 
yard  man  who  apparently  was  carrying  the  whole  business 
on  his  shoulders,  and  his  shoulders  were  not  very  broad 
either.  He  was  here,  there  and  yonder.  Excusing  himself 
for  a  minute  he  rushed  off  to  another  part  of  the  yard 
where  his  man  was  piling  some  new  lumber,  stepped 
around,  looked  at  the  pile  on  one  side  and  then  on  the 
other,  and  then  rushed  back.  When  his  son  was  talking- 
lumber  to  a  carpenter  the  father  was  trying  to  do  two 
things  at  the  same  time,  take  in  every  word  his  son  said 
and  talk  to  me.  Evidently  he  had  no  faith  in  the  way  his 
son  and  the  foreman  were  doing  their  part  of  the  work. 

Now  it  is  creditable  to  a  man  to  be  ambitious,  indus- 
trious, but  at  the  same  time  he  should  be  sensibly  so.  I 
dislike  to  see  an  extremist  even  in  that  direction.  There 
is  no  man  who  pleases  me  so  well  as  does  he  who  is  selt- 
contained.  I  enjoy  chatting  with  a  man  from  whose  ap- 
pearance you  couldn't  tell  whether  he  was  as  lazy  as  a  dog, 
or  when  at  his  business  as  lively  as  a  flea.  There  are  few 
things  more  unpleasant  in  a  man  than  earmarks.  When 
we  are  social  let's  be  social.  Take  that  man  in  question: 
If  you  were  looking  for  somebody  to  fill  a  responsible  posi- 
tion you  wouldn't  pick  him  out  as  the  right  one.  He 
would  work — there  is  no  question  about  that — but  at  the 
same  time  he  might  flash  in  the  pan.  When  you  find  a  man 


REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER.  341 

who  never  flashes  in  the  pan — but  then  I  don't  know  as 
you  ever  do  find  him. 

This  man  is  wearing  himself  out  by  inches.  It  doesn't 
pay.  What  if  his  foreman  had  not  piled  every  board  just 
as  he  would  have  piled  it  ?  What  if  his  son  had  not  talked 
to  the  prospective  buyer  of  lumber  precisely  as  he  would 
have  talked  to  him?  Not  infrequently  I  have  seen  men 
worry  because  their  work  was  not  being  done  exactly  as 
they  would  have  done  it,  when  at  the  same  time  to  the  on- 
looker it  was  being  well  done.  It  doesn't  pay  for  any 
one  man  to  attempt  to  run  too  much  of  the  world.  I  could 
name  a  dozen  men  who  are  suiciding  as  surely  as  though  at 
this  very  minute  they  were  slashing  their  necks  with  a  razor 
from  ear  to  ear.  A  cut  throat  would  shock  the  friends 
more,  and  therein  lies  about  the  only  difference. 

There  is  a  great  packer  whose  name  is  a  household 
word,  one  of  the  most  gigantic  of  money-making  machines. 
Maybe  I  have  never  told  you  that  I  was  born  neighbor  to 
this  man.  I  was.  There  sprang  right  from  that  little  section 
the  great  packer,  Secretary  Gage,  Eli  Perkins,  the  Loomis 
horse  thieves,  and  myself.  The  people  who  have  gone  out 
from  that  little  territory  are  noted  for  their  intelligence, 
enterprise,  push — and  horse  stealing.  But  we  will  let  that 
pass.  As  I  was  about  to  say,  for  years  this  great  packer 
has  carried  as  much  of  his  immense  business  on  his  shoul- 
ders as  he  possibly  could.  He  would  be  at  his  desk  at 
seven  in  the  morning,  and  pound,  pound  away  like  a 
mighty  trip  hammer.  Today  he  is  doctoring  over  in 
Europe.  I  will  guarantee  he  has  seen  days  and  weeks  at 
a  stretch  when  he  would  have  swapped  several  of  his  mil- 
lions for  a  body  that  would  give  him  as  little  worry  as 
yours  does  this  very  minute.  We  are  sometimes  richer 
than  Julius  Caesar  without  knowing  it.  Have  you  an  idea 
this  packer  would  have  permitted  or.e  of  his  fine  carriage 
horses  to  be  driven  as  he  has  driven  himself?  Of  course 
he  wouldn't.  He  would  insist  that  any  steer  that  was 
brought  to  his  yards  should  be  better  treated. 


342 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


If  this  yard  man  dances  around  like  a  chicken  on  a  hot 
stove  for  ten  years  or  so,  what  will  it  avail  him?  Noth- 
ing. If  he  has  his  senses  when  he  is  about  to  say  good-bye 
to  his  old  stamping  ground  he  will  call  himself  an  ass  for 
having  encroached  upon  his  rights  as  he  did.  I  wish  we 
would  think  of  that  phase  of  the  question  oftener  than  we 
do.  It  is  a  serious  thing  to  wrong  ourselves. 


"Little  arms  stole  'round  my  neck." 

I  wish  this  boil  on  my  ear  would  have  its  run  so  I  could 
tackle  a  more  cheerful  subject.  In  my  normal  condition  I 
don't  care  anything  about  your  millionaires  anyhow.  They 
are  no  better  than  the  rest  of  us.  I  do  not  regard  the  mil- 
lionaire of  any  greater  importance  in  the  world  than  the 
man  who  today  is  sawing  my  wood. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  343 

I  thought  I  had  finished  this  subject,  but  as  I  whacked 
out  the  last  line  on  the  machine  some  little  arms  stole 
around  my  neck  from  behind  and  hugged  until  I  begged 
to  be  let  go. 

"What  is  that   for?" 

"Because  I   love  you." 

"What  do  you  love  me  for?" 

"Because  you  love  me." 

"How  much  do  you  love  me?" 

"All  of  London   full!" 

Talk  about  the  millionaires  who  have  warped  their  souls 
to  fit  the  shape  of  Mammon.  God  bless  'em !  I  hope  they 
are  as  happy  as  I  am,  but  I  don't  believe  they  are. 


THE  SCARCITY  OF  LATH. 

The  lath  question  is  a  burning  one. '  I  asked  one  of  the 
ablest  manufacturers  in  the  northwest  if  lie  ever  expected 
to  see  such  a  condition  in  the  lath  market  as  then  ruled,  and 
he  said  he  never  dreamed  of  it.  We  may  draw  a  conclusion 
or  two  from  this  lath  condition.  You  and  I  have  heard 
talk  without  end  about  long-headed  men ;  how  they  can  look 
way  down  the  dim  vista  and  see  what  is  going  to  be  brought 
forth.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  bosh  about  such  talk.  I  will 
admit  there  are  people  who  are  pretty  long-sighted,  still  I 
have  never  had  the  pleasure  of  the  acquaintance  of  a  man 
whose  foresight  was  equal,  by  a  whole  row  of  apple  trees, 
to  his  hind-sight.  Not  many  months  ago  I  sat  in  the  office 
of  one  of  the  biggest  manufacturers  in  the  country.  His 
operations  are  of  a  volume  to  stagger  a  common  mortal.  He 
really  sits  on  a  wcoden  throne,  and  he  knows  it,  too.  He  is 
regarded  as  one  of  the  shrewdest  men  in  the  business.  But 
we  are  never  so  wise  when  we  sit  in  front  of  the  curtain  as 
we  are  when  we  go  behind  it.  I  knew  this  man  when  he  was 
no  more  of  a  lumberman  than  your  wife  is.  As  a  means  of 
self-protection  he  became  owner  of  a  little  mill,  and  gradu- 


344  REALM     OF    THE    RETAILER. 

ally  built  up  the  plant.  It  paid  well,  and  he  kept  on.  He 
did  not  at  the  start  figure  it  out  that  the  manufacture  of  lum- 
ber was  going  to  be  such  a  mighty  big  thing.  He  stumbled 
into  it,  and  has  been  borne  along  with  the  tide. 

There  are  a  host  of  saw  mill  men  and  wholesale  dealers 
in  Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan,  and  why  was  there 
not  somebody  among  them  who  could  correctly  size  up  the 


"Turned  my  old  black  cow  into  lath." 

lath  prospects  ?  But  there  was  not  one — not  even  one  in  the 
whole  crowd.  For  the  amount  of  capital  it  would  have 
been  necessary  to  invest  there  has  not  to  my  knowledge  been 
another  such  chance  to  make  money  out  of  a  product  of  the 
saw  mill.  What  if  when  lath  was  selling  at  say  $1.45  you 
had  sold  your  lumber  yard  that  some  man  was  begging  for 
every  day  and  put  the  money  into  lath  to  be  delivered  when 
you  said  so  ?  Today,  without  having  raised  a  finger  to  move 


REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER.  345 

the  stock,  you  coulcLbe  wearing  diamonds.  I  wish  I  had 
turned  my  old  black  cow  into  lath. 

I  saw  a  yard  man  the  other  day  who  was  selling  lath 
for  $4.10.  The  question  was  put  to  him  what  on  earth  he 
was  thinking  about.  It  developed  that  he  was  one  of  those 
dealers  who  don't  think  their  customers  will  pay  the  advance 
of  the  wholesale  market.  When  a  kid  I  served  under  one  of 
the  best  merchants,  in  my  opinion,  that  ever  walked  on  two 
feet,  and  having  been  thoroughly  drilled  in  the  principles  of 
trade  I  cannot  understand  the  ways  of  a  tradesman  who 
takes  the  position  that  he  should  not  follow  the  market, 
whether  up  or  down.  That,  I  believe  is  what  the  true  mer- 
chant does,  but  it  is  not  what  many  a  man  who  is  selling 
lumber  at  retail  is  doing. 

A  yard  man  was  recently  wondering  why  more  patent 
lath  is  not  used  these  days.  I  cannot  tell  except  that  builders 
don't  want  it.  This  season  I  have  been  around  many  build- 
ings that  were  going  up,  and  the  number  in  which  patent 
lath  was  being  used  can  be  counted  on  two  ringers.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  average  carpenter  talks  down  patent  lath.  An 
architect  told  me  that  if  properly  put  on  he  preferred  patent 
lath  to  the  other — but  you  see  that  "if"  comes  in  there.  Very 
likely  the  use  of  patent  lath  goes  by  districts  or  neighbor- 
hoods, like  the  smallpox  and  measles. 


ENCOURAGING  TO   BEGINNERS. 

When  a  man  is  in  a  thoughtful  mood  it  is  impossible  to 
tell  in  what  spot  he  is  going  to  break  out.  Judging  from 
his  previous  remarks,  I  thought  the  yard  man  was  going  to 
tell  how  rapidly  he  had  rolled  up  wealth  and  that  phase  of  his 
career  as  a  retail  dealer  did  not  interest  me  in  the  least.  He 
was  comfortably  fixed,  and  that  was  enough.  We  all  know 
that  the  selling  of  lumber  at  retail  out  here  in  the  prairie 
states  has  been  a  good  business.  There  are  many  who  have 
made  big  money  at  it ;  many  others  who  have  done  fairly 
well  and  made  a  good  living;  while  comparatively  few  have 


346  REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER. 

failed.  In  a  hundred  years  I  could  not  learn  to  love  a  man 
because  of  his  riches.  Unless  to  boot  he  is  a  good  fellow,  he 
may  go  to  the  dogs  with  his  riches  for  all  I  care.  But  the 
good,  rich  fellow — that  makes  a  pretty  good  combination. 

An  injustice  was  done  this  yard  man,  for  instead  of 
parading  his  bank  account  he  went  on  and  made  a  talk  that 
may  cheer  the  hearts  of  some  dealers  who  are  just  starting 
in  business.  You  know  that  when  we  start  out  in  any  under- 
taking that  is  new  to  us  trouble  seems  to  pile  up.  Petty 
annoyances  appear  like  mountains.  When  experience  has 
taught  us  to  feel  sure  of  our  footing  these  little  irregulari- 
ties which  worried  us  so  much  of  old  have  no  particular 
meaning.  We  regard  them  as  "of  course,"  and  let  them  go 
their  way. 

"I  came  out  here  with  my  wife  from  the  east,"  said  this 
yard  man,  "with  little  money  and  no  credit,  and  dropped  into 
a  lumber  yard.  I  had  come  out  of  my  father's  yard,  had 
never  taken  any  responsibility,  but  thought  I  could  hold  my 
own.  That  is  not  the  way  to  bring  up  boys — make  them 
responsible  from  the  day  they  are  able  to  do  anything.  So 
long  as  I  was  with  my  father  it  did  not  enter  my  head  that 
he  was  more  than  an  average  man,  but  before  I  had  been 
away  from  him  six  months  if  he  could  have  stepped  in  and 
given  me  a  little  advice  it  would  have  made  me  happy.  I 
doubt  if  a  boy  appreciates  his  father  until  he  becomes  a 
father  himself.  I  took  the  yard  in  June  and  trade  was  dull. 
Every  night  my  wife  would  ask  me  how  much  I  had  sold 
that  day.  There  were  days  when  I.  didn't  sell  50  cents'  worth. 
Then  I  would  catch  my  wife  crying.  I  told  her  that  was 
the  way  the  lumber  business  went ;  but,  to  tell  the  truth,  I 
had  never  seen  it  go  that  way  before.  We  put  in  an  uneasy 
summer  and  didn't  eat  beefsteak  and  mushrooms  three  times 
a  day.  Early  in  September,  in  less  than  an  hour,  I  sold  a 
church  bill  and  as  soon  as  I  could  get  rid  of  the  committee 
I  rushed  over  to  tell  my  wife.  'But  does  it  pay  anything?' 
said  she.  'Two  hundred  dollars!'  said  I.  That  minute  we 
were  the  richest  couple  in  the  state.  Then  other  bills  came 


REALM     OF    THE     RETAILER. 


347 


along.  The  farmers  wanted  to  fix  up  for  the  winter,  and  I 
sold  a  lot  of  stuff  and  did  well  enough.  We  went  into  the 
winter  with  no  pressing  need  and  knowing  where  our  grub, 
clothing  and  firewood  were  coming  from.  The  chief  trouble 
was  I  was  new  to  the  business  out  here.  I  thought  I  couldn't 
wait,  though  as  events  proved  I  had  to  wait.  That  is  the 
way  the  lumber  business  goes.  I  see  whole  weeks  now  that 
I  feel  like  going  fishing,  but  after  a  little  trade  picks  up  again. 


"Then  I  would  catch  my  wife  crying." 


There  is  nothing  surer  than  that  people  must  keep  right 
along  building  and  repairing.  If  they  don't  do  it  this  month 
they  will  next,  and  if  not  this  year  then  the  next.  When 
there  is  a  lull  they  are  getting  ready  to  come  and  see  you 
again." 

This  little  recital  may  not  inspire  you  a  particle,  but  it 
did  me.  It  illustrates  some  excellent  points — one,  that  if 
an  earnest  young  man  will  attend  to  his  knitting  he  will 
finally  finish  the  stocking.  It  is  generally  those  who  do  not 
attend  to  their  knitting  that  fall  among  thieves  and  gamblers. 


HANDY  LITTLE  BOOK. 

It  is  not  every  man  who  has  had  the  advantage  of  a 
business  education.     I  suppose  that  the  great  majority  of 


348 


REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER. 


the  most  successful  lumbermen  have  not  had  it — that  is,  a 
technical  education.  They  have  never  attended  commer- 
cial college  and  learned  the  various  forms  of  bookkeeping 
and  the  proper  way  to  write  out  this  and  that  form.  It 
need  not  be  said  that  a  knowledge  of  these  things  has  ever 
made  a  successful  business  man.  It  may  materially  aid 
him ;  but  the  quality  which  makes  the  successful  business 
man  is  inborn  and  could  not  be  learned  in  a  commercial  col- 
lege in  a  thousand  years.  This  technical  knowledge  is  not 
the  man ;  it  simply  assists  the  man. 

A  yard  man   took  a   little  blank   book    from  his    desk 
drawer  and  handed  it  to  me.     I  saw  that  entered  against 


"Profits  on   the  cover." 

each  working  day  there  was  an  amount.  Then,  turning  the 
book  in  my  hand,  I  saw  "Profits"  written  on  the  cover. 

"So  these  figures  represent  your  profits?"  I  said  to  him. 

"Yes,"  he  replied.  "I  did  not  show  them  to  you,  think- 
ing that  the  amounts  would  stagger  you,  but  that  possibly 


REALM     OF    THE    RETAILER.  349 

they  may  suggest  an  idea  to  somebody  else  that  may  be  of 
service  to  him.  All  I  ever  learned  about  figures  was  in  a 
district  school  house  and  in  a  lumber  yard.  Double  entry 
bookkeeping  is  as  Greek  to  me  as  the  Greek  language  itself. 
I  worked  for  So-and-So  in  his  yard  for  three  years  before 
I  branched  out  for  myself,  and  while  he  had  an  expert 
bookkeeper  and  all  that  it  did  not  seem  to  me  that  the  sys- 
tem filled  the  bill.  Every  once  in  a  while  Jim  would  set 
us  taking  an  inventory  of  the  stock  to  see  whether  he  was 
making  any  money  or  not,  as  he  expressed  it.  I  concluded 
that  there  must  be  some  better  way  than  that,  and  the  first 
day  I  opened  my  yard  I  started  my  little  book  and  have 
kept  it  up.  At  night  I  know  what  I  have  sold,  I  know  what 
it  cost,  and  the  difference  represents  the  gross  profit  of  the 
day.  Deduct  from  that  amount  my  expenses,  and  I  have  it.'' 

"With  the  exception,"  I  broke  in,  "that  some  of  your 
bills  receivable  may  fail  to  be  received." 

"Yes,  that  is  so,"  said  he.  "But  I  can  tell  you  that 
my  bills  receivable  which  are  not  received  are  light.  I  had 
so  little  money  when  I  started  and  had  worked  so  hard  for 
it  that  it  seemed  precious  to  me.  I  was  going  to  take  no 
chances  of  losing  it  and  that  determination  has  stayed  by 
me  up  to  the  present  hour.  I  have  no  money  to  lend  to  peo- 
ple whose  disposition  or  ability  to  return  it  to  me  is  doubt- 
ful ;  then  why  should  I  trust  to  those  people  my  lumber 
which  cost  me  money?" 

I  arose  and  slapped  the  man  on  the  shoulder.  "That," 
said  I,  "is  the  clear  stuff!  If  every  yard  man  in  America 
would  use  that  as  a  text,  print  it  in  golden  letters  and  paste 
it  in  his  hat  so  that  his  brains  would  fully  absorb  it,  it  would 
be  worth  millions  to  the  trade." 

When  fishing  we  know  what  we  will  catch.  When  the 
train  pulled  into  this  little  burg  I  was  in  doubt  whether  it 
would  be  the  thing  to  get  off  or  not.  But  you  see  what 
was  found :  A  yard  man  who  owned  right  up  that  his 
knowledge  of  bookkeeping  was  exceedingly  limited,  but 
who  had  adopted  a  system,  in  part,  which  he  hoped  might 


350  REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER. 

benefit  some  one  else;  and  in  addition  to  this  a  man  who 
got  off  as  wise  a  saying  as  could  any  lumberman  in  the 
whole  country,  no  matter  if  he  should  use  a  club  on  his 
head  from  now  till  next  week  pounding  it  out. 


A  CONTRACTOR'S  DILEMMA. 

There  are  free  lances  in  the  market  who  know  their  cus- 
tomers and  treat  them  accordingly.  If  they  are  shipping 
lumber  to  a  contractor  who  is  known  by  them  to  be  posted 
on  grades,  who  will  kick  like  a  mule  if  he  does  not  get  what 
he  buys  and  furthermore  is  a  man  whom  they  hope  to  re- 
tain as  a  customer,  they  may  send  him  a  fair  quality  of  lum- 
ber, but  if  the  stock  is  shipped  to  a  2x4  carpenter  who  fiddles 
around  here  and  there  without  knowing  what  he  does  want, 
or  to  a  farmer  to  whom  a  board  is  a  board,  then  only  the 
Lord  knows  what  grade  of  material  he  will  get.  The  way 
certain  of  these  poachers  adjust  their  grades  to  the  supposed 
ignorance  of  their  customers  has  become  a  fine  art. 

When  writing  this  I  have  in  mind  a  contractor  who 
knows  lumber  as  well  as  the  best  of  us,  and  it  is  part  of  his 
business  religion  to  buy  where  he  can  buy  cheapest — a  prin- 
ciple which  few  good  business  men  repudiate,  and  a  plank  in 
the  business  platform  of  the  most  successful  operators  in 
every  line.  In  my  range  of  lumber  acquaintances  I  can  re- 
call only  one  dealer  who  does  not  follow7  this  plan.  This 
man  never  runs  after  strange  gods.  When  he  buys  it  is  more 
of  a  principle  of  whom  he  buys  than  it  is  to  get  the  lowest 
possible  price.  If  I  am  not  mistaken  he  refuses  to  insure 
his  yard  in  a  mutual  company  on  the  ground  that  he  regards 
it  as  his  duty  to  patronize  the  insurance  agents  of  his  own 
town.  Such  men  are  as  scarce  as  hens'  teeth,  however. 

In  this  matter  of  cheap  buying  we  are  liable  to  get  it 
soaked  to  us  unless  we  know  precisely  what  we  are  going 
to  get.  Price  is  one  thing  and  quality  another.  There  are 
thousands  of  branded  articles  in  the  market,  and  no  matter 


REALM     OF    THE    RETAILER.  351 

whether  we  pay  a  cent  or  a  hundred  for  one  of  them  there 
would  be  no  difference  in  the  quality.  But  we  know  how 
lumber  can  be  manipulated,  for  some  of  us  have  manipulated 
it.  So  far  as  the  grades  are  concerned  well  meaning  men 
differ.  For  instance,  look  at  the  work  of  the  bureau  of  in- 
spection of  the  white  pine  manufacturers'  association.  That 
bureau  has  done  its  best  to  adjust  grades  as  to  different  lo- 
calities. It  has  employed  as  able  men  as  could  be  had,  yet 
this  grading  has  not  been  brought  down  to  a  nicety.  There 
are  yard  men  who  buy  at  certain  manufacturing  points,  be- 
lieving that  the  grades  there  obtained  are  superior  to  those 
to  be  had  at  certain  other  points.  The  question  of  opinion, 


"Fairly  danced  with  joy.'" 

judgment,  conies  in  here.  In  one  section  the  timber  has 
more  knots,  in  another  more  shake,  and  it  is  the  aim  of  the 
inspection  bureau  to  make  the  same  grades  in  the  different 
localities  of  the  same  value.  You  can  readily  understand 
what  part  judgment  plays  here.  Suppose  here  are  two  suits 
,of  clothes,  one  suit  has  rips  in  one  part  of  it  and  the  other 
rips  in  another  part.  In  one  suit  there  are  holes  in  soine 
places  and  in  the  other  holes  in  different  places.  It  is  very 
doubtful  if  we  would  agree  as  to  the  relative  values  of  the 
suits.  This  illustrates  the  estimation  in  which  the  work  of 


352  REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER. 

the  inspection  bureau  is  held  by  its  own  members  and  by  the 
retail  dealers.  The  inspectors  use  their  best  judgment  in  es- 
tablishing the  grades,  but  their  judgment  is  neither  yours 
nor  mine.  The  bureau  may  say  that  a  board  cut  from  an 
upper  Mississippi  log  containing  knots  is  equal  in  value  to 
one  cut  from  a  Wisconsin  valley  log  containing  shake,  and 
while  the  bureau  may  settle  that  point  for  itself  it  cannot 
settle  it  for  you.  That  board  is  more  valuable  for  you  which 
sells  the  more  readily ;  to  which  the  fewer  objections  are 
raised  by  your  customers. 

I  would  not  want  to  buy  lumber,  and  pay  in  advance  for 
it,  of  a  dishonest  man  who  lived  so  far  away  that  it  would 
cost  all  that  the  car  of  lumber  was  worth  to  make  the  trip 
and  lick  him.  Your  carpenter,  your  farmer  has  paid  for  his 
lumber,  receives  poor  stuff,  and  what  is  he  going  to  do  about 
it?  Swallow  the  whole  thing  and  take  an  oath  that  he  will 
never  be  caught  like  that  again  until  the  next  time.  That  is 
all  he  can  do.  I  should  like  to  see  the  carpenter  or  farmer 
bring  suit  against  one  of  these  poachers  for  damage  owing 
to  not  getting  value  received  for  his  money  !  Why,  that  car- 
penter or  farmer  would  be  made  a  monkey  of  so  quick  he 
would  not  know  himself.  This  contractor  who  forms  a 
subject  for  this  little  piece  is  up  to  several  kinds  of  snuff, 
and  he  knew  very  well  that  the  cheapest  thing  for  him  to  do 
was  to  swallow  the  deal. 

The  contractor  in  question  has  been  mighty  close  with 
the  yard  men  of  whom  he  has  bought  lumber,  demanding 
good  material  and  low  prices,  and  getting  them,  but  you 
know  that  at  times  we  have  worms  or  microbes  or  other  sim- 
ilar animals  which  prey  upon  us  and  temporarily,  at  least, 
change  our  natures.  It  is  no  doubt  a  mistake  to  think  that 
microbes  affect  only  what  we  call  our  physical  organizations. 
I  believe  there  are  microbes  which  prey  upon  our  mentality 
as  well.  In  fact,  when  we  come  right  down  to  business  and 
let  speculation  alone,  I  guess  the  man  has  not  yet  been  born 
who  was  smart  enough  to  separate  the  mental  from  the  phy- 
sical. Prior  to  a  close  study  being  made  of  these  things  it 


REALM     OF    THE     RETAILER.  353 

was  easily  done — just  as  our  ignorance  permits  us  so  easily 
to  settle  many  other  great  problems  about  which  we  really 
know  little — but  the  last  analysis  that  has  been  made  says 
that  every  thought  that  .emanates  from  your  brain  or  mine  is 
composed  of  matter,  fine,  subtle  matter,  but  matter  just  the 
same,  and  if  that  be  so  why  should  there  not  be  more  subtle 
microbes  than  those  which  gnaw  away  on  our  livers  and 
lungs  ? 

This  contractor  has  a  job  and  failed  to  make  a  dicker  to 
suit  him  with  the  local  yard  man.  Probably  the  contractor 
demanded  too  much  and  the  yard  man  wanted  too  much. 
Let  me  say  this  in  favor  of  this  contractor :  He  always  gives 
the  yard  men  in  the  towns  in  which  he  may  be  building  the 
first  chance.  I  tell  you  if  personally  I  were  the  retail  lum- 


"Nail  it  right  to  the  beards." 

bermen  of  the  United  States  these  poachers  would  go  out 
of  business,  for  I  would  keep  them  out  of  my  territory  if 
now  and  then  I  had  to  give  away  a  bill  to  do  it.  When  a 
yard  man  gets  to  thinking  that  he  is  the  whole  thing  and 
pitches  his  .prices  unreasonably  high,  he  lay?  himself  wide 
open  to  the  ravages  of  the  poacher.  As  the  contractor  and 
retail  man  could  not  agree  on  prices  the  lumber  for  the  house 
was  shipped  in.  The  contractor  opened  the  car  and  fairly 
danced  with  joy.  He  pulled  out  a  few  boards  and  they 
were  fine.  Then  he  took  the  train  and  went  off  to  another 
town  to  oversee  a  job  for  a  day  or  two,  and  when  he  came 
back  his  man  had  the  car  unloaded. 


354  REALM     OF    THE     RETAILER. 

"Where  did  that  blank  C  siding  come  from?"  roared  the 
contractor. 

"Why,  out  of  the  car,  of  course,"  meekly  replied  the  supe. 

"And  these  blank  four  boards?",  again  roared  the  con- 
tractor. 

"Out  of  the  car,"  meekly  answered  the  supe. 

The  4-inch  C  siding  was  90  percent  blue  sap  and  the 
No.  4  boards  were  so  wretchedly  poor  that  the  man  who  was 
building  the  house  would  not  permit  them  to  be  used.  I  know 
this  contractor  and  I  can  imagine  how  he  jerked  up  his  pant 
legs,  spit  tobacco  juice  and  tore  around  like  a  baby  cyclone. 
I  don't  know  whether  he  is  cured  or  not,  but  the  chances  are 
he  is  if  the  yard  men  in  the  towns  in  which  he  has  con- 
tracts will  only  meet  him  half  way.  At  any  rate  he  is  so 
much  in  love  with  the  poacher  of  whom  he  bought  the  bill 
of  lumber  that  he  asked  permission  of  a  yard  man  to  leave  a 
bundle  of  this  blue  sap  siding  in  his  yard,  and  brand  it  to 
the  effect  that  it  came  from  such  and  such  a  poacher. 

"And  I  will  make  my  affidavit  and  nail  it  right  to  the 
boards  if  you  say  so,"  he  remarked. 


KEEPING  COMFORTABLE. 

Now  that  the  frost  is  on  the  pumpkin  it  is  plainly  the 
duty  of  the  yard  man  to  get  up  the  stove  in  his  office.  There 
are  retail  lumbermen  who  will  stand  around  thumping  their 
hands  and  feet  to  keep  them  warm  when  they  ought  to  have 
a  glowing  fire  in  the  office  stove.  I  am  not  speaking  for 
myself,  yet  when  I  come  to  your  office  I  want  to  be  com- 
fortable. Occasionally  there  is  a  yard  man  who  is  a  regular 
buffalo  to  stand  the  cold.  I  expect  he  was  born  up  in  Nor- 
way or  Sweden  and  is  always  sighing  for  a  cold  breeze.  He 
will  spit  the  ice  from  between  his  teeth  and  appear  as  happy 
as  a  clam  in  high  tide.  Then  when  we  scribblers  go  around 
with  our  elegant  fur  coats  on,  with  collars  turned  up,  shiv- 
ering like  a  cornstalk  in  a  prairie  breeze,  these  born  refrigera- 


REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER. 


355 


tors  look  at  us  as  though  we  were  babes  right  out  of  hot  air 
incubators. 

Late  last  fall,  when  making  a  trip  in  southern  Minnesota, 
when  the  morning  was  as  cold  as  an  unsatisfied  creditor,  I 
called  on  one  of  these  ice  men  who  happened  to  be  up  town 
on  business.  I  froze  for  fifteen  minutes,  then  went  up  the 
street  to  the  place  of  another  dealer,  and  the  fact  is  we  went 
out  and  got  a  cocktail  to  warm  us  up.  At  the  Minneapolis 
convention  I  saw  this  man  who  lives  without  artificial  heat, 

and  he  gently  chided  me. 
"I  saw  you  were  in  my 
town,  but  you  didn't 
come  and  see  me/'  he 
said. 

"Yes,  I  did,"  he  re- 
plied. ''I  was  there  on 
such  and  such  a  morn- 
ing, and  your  office  was 
so  much  of  an  icebox 
"Putting  up  the  stovepipe."  that  I  didn't  stay  until 

you  came  back  from  town/' 

Then  he  asked  me  why  I  didn't  chuck  in  a  bundle  of 
lath  or  a  bunch  of  shingles  and  make  a  fire  to  suit  myself. 
"By  George!"  said  he,  ''tell  me  when  you  are  coming  the 
next  time,  and  I  will  set  the  old  office  on  fire !" 

That  was  a  sociable  way  to  talk,  but  I  knew  all  the  time 
he  was  thinking  I  was  a  tender  skinned  kid. 

This  personal  experience  is  simply  thrown  in.  It  does 
seem  to  me,  however,  that  it  is  business  to  keep  an  office 
warm  in  cold  weather.  You  wouldn't  catch  hardware,  dry 
goods  or  boot  and  shoe  men  running  their  places  the  live- 
long day  without  heat  when  it  was  so  cold  they  would  have 
to  walk  around  the  premises  to  keep  warm.  Their  business 
education  was  not  neglected  to  that  extent.  If  they  were 
born  in  Greenland,  when  in  Rome  they  do  as  the  Romans 
do.  If  in  the  matter  of  keeping  our  offices  warm  we  are 


356  REALM     OF    THE     RETAILER. 

competing  with  blacksmith  shops  and  saw  mills  let  us  own 
right  up  to  it. 

There  is  the  fall  duty  of  putting  up  the  stovepipe,  pinch- 
ing our  fingers,  falling  off  chairs,  saying  bad  words  etc., 
which  comes  to  so  many  of  us,  and  we  may  as  well  indulge 
in  the  pleasure  before  the  last  housefly  disappears  as  to 
wait  until  the  snow  comes  swirling  in  at  the  door.  We  know 
it  must  be  done,  so  why  not  buckle  to  and  get  the  nightmare 
off  our  minds  ? 

Many  yard  men  do  not  take  down  their  stoves  the  year 
round,  and  there  they  stand  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  eter- 


"Will  set  the  old  office  on  fire." 

nally  ready  for  business.  These  men  have  never,  of  course, 
taken  lessons  in  house  keeping  from  their  wives,  but  that 
doesn't  matter.  If  we  can't  have  a  few  liberties  of  our  own 
we  will  rebel  and  cut  the  apron  strings  right  in  two. 


PRAIRIE  FENCES. 

I  wish  we  could  evolute  beyond  the  barbarity  of  the 
barbed  wire  fence,  for,  as  highly  civilized  as  we  call  our- 
selves, barbarous  in  regard  to  the  use  of  this  fence  we  cer- 
tainly are.  I  should  like  to  see  the  sum  total  of  the  loss 
of  horses  and  cattle  due  to  barbed  wire/  It  would  astonish 


REALM     OF    THE     RETAILER.  357 

the  world.  Throughout  the  prairie  states  there  is  a  countless 
number  of  horses  from  each  of  which  dollars  have  been 
knocked  by  contact  with  barbed  wire.  I  have  seen  the 
cussedness  wrought  by  this  style  of  fence  until  my  heart 
has  ached  for  the  poor  brutes.  Not  long  ago  I  cut  the 
wire  of  a  fence  in  order  to  release  a  heifer  that  was  astride 
of  it,  and  whose  flesh  was  torn  and  pierced  in  a  way  that 
was  sickening  to  behold.  The  other  day  I  saw  a  fine  yearling 
colt  with  the  flesh  literally  stripped  from  the  inside  of  its 
hind  legs  to  the  bone.  These  sights  are  common,  and  all 


"The  barbarity  of  the  barbed  wire  fence." 

over  the  country,  on  fence  and  tree,  is  posted  the  announce- 
ment that  some  patent  medicine  man's  liniment  is  just  the 
thing  for  wire  cuts. 

It  would  be  a  task  to  determine  what  the  human 
race  will  not  do  for  the  almighty  dollar.  I  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  patent  lawyer  throiigh  whom  an  inventor 
sought  to  secure  a  patent  on  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first, 
barbed  wire  fence  device,  and  the  lawyer  turned  it  down 
on  the  ground  that  the  applicant  would  be  spending  his 
money  for  nothing,  as  he  did  not  believe  that  the  public 
would  countenance  such  an  implement  of  cruelty.  The 


REALM      OF     THE     RETAILER. 

lawyer,  however,  was  wrong.  His  heart  was  too  tender; 
and  I  have  thought  what  a  noble  tribute  to  his  worth  it 
would  be  if  on  the  monument  over  his  grave  were  the  sim- 
ple inscription,  "To  the  memory  of  the  lawyer  who  refused 
to  assist  in  securing  a  patent  on  barbed  wire  for  fencing.'' 

The  introduction  of  the  wire  fence  dampened  the  ardor 
of  many  a  pioneer  retail  lumberman.  These  lumbermen 
came  on  from  the  east  where  rails,  boards  and  stone  were 
used  for  fencing;  hence  they  thought  that  "out  west"  they 
would  have  a  cinch  on  the  fence  industry,  for  they  couldn't 
pick  up  a  stone  big  enough  to  throw  at  fighting  cats,  and 
there  was  no  timber  from  which  to  split  rails.  They  thought 
as  fast  as  the  prairie  was  laid  off  into  farms  they  would 
sell  the  fencing  to  inclose  them ;  but,  as  the  Scottish  bard 
says,  "The  best  laid  schemes  o'  mice  and  men  gang  aft 
aglee."  In  one  sense  it  was  perhaps  as  well  that  this  scheme 
did  not  carry,  for  where  would  the  stuff  have  come  from 
to  fence  all  these  prairie  state  farms  with  boards  ?  It  would 
have  rushed  the  supply  of  lumber,  there  would  have  been 
more  of  a  shortage  up  north  than  there  is  today,  the  barons 
would  have  sent  prices  up  higher  than  a  pine  tree,  and 
emigrants  would  have  been  so  discouraged  that  they  would 
have  waded  right  through  the  sea  of  prairie  grass  and 
brought  up  maybe  beyond  the  Rockies.  Then  where  would 
you  and  I  have  been?  When  we  reflect  how  things  might 
have  been  we  should  feel  thankful  that  they  are  as  they  are. 
There  are  so  many  holes  in  the  logic  of  the  above  statement 
that  you  might  say  a  full-blooded  Irishman  wrote  it,  but 
when  a  fellow  gets  his  head  hard  set  in  any  particular  direc- 
tion he  doesn't  care  a  rap  for  logic  if  he  can  only  get  there. 
We  can  prove  this  to  our  satisfaction  in  a  minute  by  glancing 
at  politics,  religion,  literature  or  art.  I  have  concluded 
that  when  a  man  says  that  logic  shall  not  stand  in  his  way 
he  is  no  more  of  a  fool  than  are  ninety-nine  one-hundredths 
of  his  fellow  creatures. 

As  it  has  turned  out,  the  term  fencing  as  applied  to  a 


REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER.  359 

grade  of  lumber  in  the  middle  west  is  a  misnomer.    We  will 
it  fencing,  but  use  it  for  a  hundred  and  more  purposes. 

It  would  do  me  good  to  see  the  barbed  wire  fence  go, 
however.  Had  I  not  a  little  stretch  of  it  myself  I  might 
say. that  it  is  a  disgrace  to  any  man  who  will  make  use  of  it. 
A  few  weeks  ago  I  listened  to  a  woman  who  came  near 
putting  me  to  sleep  with  a  sing-song  woman  suffrage  ad- 
dress, and  I  thought,  "Old  gal,  if  you  would  quit  discussing 
these  questions  which  are  problematical  anyhow,  and  take 
up  the  cause  of  the  dumb  brutes  vs.  the  barbed  wire  fences, 
I  would  throw  a  half  dollar  instead  of  a  bogus  nickel  into  the 
hat  for  vou." 


LOW    PRICES    THEIR    SALVATION. 

I  met  a  yard  man  whose  burden  of  complaint  was  that 
lumber  is  not  admitted  free  into  the  United  States  from 


''A  tariff  discussion  on  a  street  corner." 

Canada.  He  thought  if  lumber  were  so  admitted  it  would 
sell  cheaper  at  wholesale,  and  one  might  conclude  from  what 
he  said  that  life  would  be  sweeter  and  that  the  fine  farm 
he  owns  would  measure  more  to  the  acre. 

There  is  not  much  pleasure  wrestling  in  a  tariff  discus^ 


36o  REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER. 

sion  unless  there  is  more  of  an  object  than  for  a  fellow 
to  hear  himself  talk.  There  are  some  things  which  are  self- 
evident  and  others  which  can  be  reasoned  out  with  some 
degree  of  human  certainty,  but  I  never  attempted  a  tariff 
discussion  on  a  street  corner  when  I  thought  I  came  out 
whole,  and  doubtless  the  other  fellow  had  the  same  humili- 
ating feeling.  It  amounts  to  talk,  talk,  talk,  statements  on 
both  sides  which  cannot  be  proved,  charges  and  cross 
charges,  and  in  the  end  nothing  gained.  I  have  talked  tariff 
in  print  a  great  many  times,  but  that  is  another  thing.  A 
printing  press  will  whirl  off  your  great  thoughts,  then  you 
can  go  home  and  sleep  in  peace,  and  if  the  people  who  read 
your  articles  do  you  up  you  don't  know  a  thing  about  it.  I 
have  an  idea  there  are  as  many  as  one  or  two  newspaper 
men  who  think  they  weigh  a  ton  simply  because  they  are 
not  obliged  to  come  in  contact  with  men  who  know  more 
than  they  do.  I  have  been  there  myself. 

Last  summer  I  heard  a  protestant  and  a  catholic  dis- 
cuss the  question  of  religion;  or  rather  the  one  of  churches. 
They  started  in  by  knowing  it  all,  said  a  hundred  things 
they  didn't  know,  and  ended  no  nearer  together  than  when 
they  trained  their  guns.  The  fact  was  neither  of  them 
wanted  to  be  convinced  and  each  thought  that  the  other 
was  as  blind  as  a  new  kitten,  and  a  further  fact  was  that 
neither  of  them  was  half  as  wise. as  he  thought  he  was.  If 
we  could  be  at  the  same  time  the  man  on  the  ground  and 
the  man  up  the  tree  it  would  be  a  splendid  wav  to  become 
acquainted  with  ourselves. 

For  the  reasons  set  forth  I  don't  want  to  talk  tariff  in  pri- 
vate. I  have  my  opinion  on  the  subject,  am  perfectly  will- 
ing that  others  shall  have  theirs  whether  they  agree  with 
mine  or  not,  but  I  don't  want  to  put  in  good  time  when  it 
will  not  bring  me  a  cent,  nobody  else  a  cent,  and  nobody 
be  convinced.  On  this  account  while  this  yard  man  was  lay- 
ing down  the  law  and  gospel  of  the  tariff  business — ob- 
tained, I  know,  from  a  party  organ — I  made  so  little  sign 
of  life  that  he  may  have  thought  I  didn't  know  a  tariff  from 


REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER.  361 

the  side  of  a  barn.  I  don't  care  if  he  thought  I  was  dead. 
An  easy  way,  and  sometimes  the  only  way,  to  shut  up  other 
people  is  to  shut  up  yourself. 

But  when  it  comes  to  the  price  of  lumber  at  wholesale — 
there  is  a  subject  that  is  in  sight,  legitimate  and  always  pat. 
And  I  can't  understand — I  say  it  right  out,  I  can't  under- 
stand— why  there  are  men  selling  lumber  at  retail  who  are 
eager  that  the  price  at  wholesale  shall  be  low  irrespective  of 
the  effect  it  may  have  on  the  wholesale  dealers.  Personally 
I  want  to  see  the  whole  shooting  match,  from  the  man  who 
owns  the  tree  to  the  one  who  peddles  out  boards  to  builders, 
prosper.  Yet  the  cry  of  certain  retail  men  is  ''Low  prices! 
Low  prices !"  They  appear  to  focus  their  whole  natures  on 
what  should  be  low  prices. 

I  recently  saw  a  man  who  had  sold  his  yard  and  was 
looking  for  a  town  in  which  to  re-establish.  "I  don't  know 
as  it  is  just  the  time  to  put  in  'a  large  stock  of  lumber,"  he 
said.  That  is  a  proper  question  to  consider.  There  is  many 
a  dealer  who  would  think  seriously  before  laying  in  a  stock 
from  the  foundations  when  prices  seemed  unreasonably  high. 
Just  how  long  present  prices  will  hold  none  of  us  knows.  A 
northern  manufacturer  said  to  me  in  a  letter  last  week 
that  by  and  by  prices  will  tumble.  It  wouldn't  do  to  tell  his 
name,  else  his  neighbors  might  hang  him.  There  are  cer- 
tain conditions  governing  stocks  and  demand,  however, 
which  make  it  tolerably  certain  that  low  priced  lumber  will 
not  knock  at  our  doors  immediately,  but  if  any  man  pre- 
tends to  tell  you  at  what  prices  boards  and  dimension  will 
sell  following  a  change  in  these  conditions,  you  can  adopt 
Horace  Greeley's  method  of  addressing  those  who  did  not 
agree  with  him  and  call  him  a  liar  and  a  horse  thief;  that  is, 
always  first  provided  that  you  can  lick  him. 

One  of  these  low-priced  yard  men  told  me  the  other 
morning  that  these  high  prices  had  retarded  building.  No 
doubt  in  a  limited  number  of  cases  that  is  so.  Still  it  is  not 
my  observation  that  any  more  building  has  been  postponed 
this  season  than  there  was  last,  or  the  one  before  last.  We 


362  REALM     OF    THE    RETAILER. 

have  never  seen  a  season  when  plans  for  building  were  not 
made  which  did  not  materialize.  There  are  people  who  are 
everlastingly  building,  in  their  minds.  I  know  a  man  who 
has  built  a  house  every  season  for  four  years,  and  the  foun- 
dation is  not  in  yet.  There  may  be  numerous  reasons  why 
any  man  should  postpone  building.  First  and  last  I  see  a 
great  many  builders  and  contractors,  and  several  of  them 
have  told  me  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  of  the  postpon- 
ing of  building  plans  the  cause  was  the  inability  to  get  me- 
chanics to  do  the  work.  That,  surely,  is  a  healthy  condition 
of  things,  isn't  it  ?  In  this  connection  I  speak,  of  course,  of 
frame  buildings.  On  account  of  the  great  advance  in 
structural  steel  store  and  office  building  plans  have  been 
tabled.  When  the  increase  in  the  cost  of  building  is  75  per- 
cent, as  is  the  case  with  steel  work,  it  is  something  to  talk 
about.  The  difference  between  $100,000  and  $175,000  is 
enough  to  stagger  any  but  old  Money  Bags  himself,  but 
when  to  build  an  average  house  in  wood  the  increase,  as 
compared  with  a  low  priced  period,  is  only  a  few  hundred 
dollars  the  feeling  of  confidence  which  possesses  so  many 
these  days  is  apt  to  overbalance  it.  Maybe  my  eyes  are 
eclipsed,  but  that  is  the  way  I  look  at  it. 

What  we  want  are  equitable  prices,  whether  they  may 
be  such  that  we  may  call  them  high  or  low.  There  is  no 
more  sense  in  thinking  that  prices  of  lumber  should  remain 
the  same  year  after  year  than  there  would  be  in  thinking 
that  wool,  cotton,  quinine,  iron  should  be  stationary  in  price. 
Supply  and  demand — that  is  what  does  it,  unless  some  mis- 
erable trust  is  back  of  a  product.  I^et  us  be  thankful  there 
is  no  lumber  trust.  Both  north  and  south  there  are  associa- 
tions, price  list  committees  and  kindred  trade  helps,  but 
don't  think  for  a  minute  that  one  of  them  would  have  a 
feather's  weight  if  the  demand  should  so  fall  off  that  the 
supply  would  exceed  it.  We  may  live  to  see  the  time  when 
the  price  of  lumber,  especially  in  the  northwest,  will  be 
pitched  by  one  or  two  of  the  old  long  heads,  but  it  will 


REALM     OF    THE     RETAILER. 


363 


not  be  until  the  whistle  of  many  a  mill  that  is  slashing  away 
today  shall  have  tooted  for  the  last  time.  Supply  and  de- 
mand will  rule. 


A  LUMBER  JACK. 

This  jack  is  the  invention  of  Senator  Lathrop,  of  North- 
field,  Minn.  A  is  an  oak  stick,  3x4,  and  BB  are  other  oak 
sticks  an  inch  thick  and  about  four  inches  wide.  Between 
the  mortises  in  A  the  distance  is  39  inches — one  inch  more 
than  the  distance  from  one  wagon  stake  to  the  other.  The 


t 


s 

::~ 

B 

V             *       ,  1 

r          3    •  1 

ffoftS                                                                                               &0//-4 
J                                                                                                                       \ 

o         o"                                    ^                                    *b 

•o 

U 

stakes  can  be  made  any  length,  preferably  about  four  feet. 
On  each  side  of  the  mortises  bolts  should  be  put  through 
the  crosspiece  to  prevent  it  from  splitting. 

When  it  is  desired  to  put  on  a  big  load  of  lumber,  hav- 
ing piled  it  to  the  top  of  the  wagon  stakes,  one  jack  is 
placed  near  the  forward  stakes  and  the  other  near  the  hind 
ones,  the  jacks  acting  as  extended  stakes.  In  large  part 
these  jacks  take  the  place  of  a  binder. 

Suppose  a  farmer  customer  is  in  town  who,  in  addition 
to  flour,  sugar,  salt  etc.,  wants  to  carry  home  a  thousand 


364  REALM     OF    THE     RETAILER. 

feet  of  lumber;  he  comes  with  a  lumber  wagon  and  in  the 
bottom  of  the  wagon  are  the  articles  he  has  bought  at  the 
grocery.  A  couple  of  these  jacks  are  placed  across  the  box 
and  the  lumber  is  piled  on.  When  unloading,  the  stakes  may 
be  pulled  over  until  the  lumber  rests  on  the  edge  of  the 
cross  piece,  when  the  boards  may  be  drawn  from  the  side 
of  the  wagon  instead  of  directly  back. 

"I  used  these  jacks  two  years  before  I  learned  how  to 
carry  them  on  an  unloaded  wagon,  without  a  box,"  said 
Mr.  Lathrop.  Then  he  took  them,  stuck  one  end  down 
into  the  hounds  of  the  wagon,  with  the  other  end  resting 
on  the  bolster,  and  there  they  were  as  securely  as  though 
they  were  locked. 

It  costs  only  a  small  amount  to  make  these  jacks  and 
there  are  those  who  call  them  a  big  thing.  All  the  yards 
in  Northfield  have  adopted  them  and  do  not  think  they 
could  keep  house  without  them. 


THE  WINNING  TWAIN. 

We  had  picked  up  pieces  of  lath  on  the  way,  looked 
around  the  yard,  took  reserved  seats  on  a  pile  of  lumber, 
and  naturally  both  fell  to  whittling.  This  dealer  is  known 
as  a  close  buyer  and  I  have  heard  traveling  salesmen  cen- 
sure him  because  he  wants  his  money's  worth.  He  is  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  best  merchants  of  the  town,  and  out 
there  on  the  lumber,  pile  I  thought  I  should  like  to  tap  him 
and  permit  some  of  his  lumber  lore  to  flow  over  these  pages. 
Every  time  a  successful  man  tells  how  he  got  on  in  the  world 
it  ought  to  benefit  us,  whether  it  does  or  not. 

"I  started  out  by  determining  to  make  a  part  of  my 
profit  on  the  buying  end  of  the  business,"  he  remarked. 
"When  a  man  buys  right,  if,  pushed  to  it  he  can  sell  as 
low  as  his  neighbor,  and  if  not  pushed  to  low  prices  my 
profits  exceed  those  of  the  dealer  who  does  not  buy  close. 
It  isn't  the  salesman  or  the  wholesale  dealer  I  am  trying 
particularly  to  please ;  it  is  mv  customer.  A  customer  knows 


REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER.  365 

mighty  well  whether  his  interests  are  protected  or  not.  We 
sometimes  make  a  big  mistake  by  ascribing  to  others  less 
intelligence  than  we  ourselves  possess.  Others  are  as  sharp 
as  we  are.  A  man  wants  what  he  buys,  and  he  wants  it  as 
cheap  as  he  can  get  it  elsewhere,  and  if  it  is  a  little  cheaper 
he  never  grumbles.  If  I  have  ever  had  many  dissatisfied 
customers  I  don't  know  it.  When  I  sell  a  bill  of  lumber 


"Both  fell  to  whittling." 

I  want  to  show  the  stuff  to  the  buyer,  tell  him  what  it  is, 
and  if  it  has  defects  point  them  out  to  him.  Today  I  sold 
cedar  shingles  for  a  house.  The  old  man  who  is  building 
the  house  liked  the  looks  of  them  and  remarked  that  they 
appeared  to  be  a  perfect  shingle.  I  told  him  that  in  every 
sense  they  were  not  perfect ;  that  they  would  stain  his  cis- 
tern water  red ;  but  as  he  uses  city  water  that  was  no  objec- 
tion. Confidence  in  you,  and  fair  prices  by  you,  will  sell 
more  goods  than  any  other  agency.  It's  what  will  keep 
your  business  going  year  after  year." 

I  thought  he  was  getting  along  admirably,  but  evidently 
he  did  not  want  my  visit  to  be  a  monotonous  one,  so  he 
changed  the  subject  and,  evidently  being  a  silver  man,  he 
had  something  to  say  about  the  old  16  to  i  question.  I 


366 


REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER. 


had  heard  that  question  discussed  and  cussed  so  much  that 
it  has  no  charms  for  me,  and  as  life  is  short  I  shut  up  my 
jackknife,  slid  off  the  pile  of  boards  and  told  the  yard  man 
I  would  run  over  and  see  his  neighbor. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  DIFFERENCE. 

After  a  yard  man  had  passed  the  time  of  day  he  said 

he  did  not  agree  with  a  certain  conclusion  I  had  reached,  and 

was  half  inclined  to  write  me.    I  asked  him  why  he  did  not, 

and  his  reply  was  he  did  not  know  that  I  would  like -it! 

He  would  never  be  able  to  arouse  any  lion  in  my  nature 


"See  things  in  a  different  light." 

by  disagreeing  with  me.  Why,  even  my  best  girl  and  I 
not  infrequently  see  things  in  a  different  light.  It  may  be 
on  some  literary,  social  or  religious  point;  and  for  that 
reason  have  you  an  idea  that  we  go  to  pulling  hair?  Not 
to  the  extent  that  I  am  yet  bald.  We  talk  it  over  and  then 
go  right  along  thinking  our  own  thoughts  as  though  nothing 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  367 

had  happened.  It  is  an  unwritten  law  in  this  household 
that  there  is  no  coercion  of  thought.  Whether  my  children 
shall  grow  up  thinking  as  the  old  man  does  concerning  the 
problems  of  life  is  a  matter  of  no  concern  to  me.  I  tell 
you  the  old  man  can  crack  few  enough  of  them  to  his  satis- 
faction, and  that  being  the  case  it  would  be  folly  for  him 
to  instruct  others  just  how  to  do  it.  I  impose  one  require- 
ment— that  my  children  think  honestly.  I  want  to  give  them 
all  the  opportunities  in  my  power — schools,  books,  churches, 
music,  lectures,  anything  that  will  inspire  them  to  think  vig- 
orously and  purely — and  then  leave  them  as  free  as  the 
clouds  in  the  air.  What  would  you  think  of  me  if  I  should 
bring  down  a  pair  of  my  pants  some  morning  and  insist 
that  my  boy  wear  them  ?  He  would  say  they  did  not  fit — 
the  legs  were  too  long,  the  waist  too  large.  Then  I  would 
shout,  "They  have  got  to  fit !  What  is  the  matter  with  your 
legs  and  waist?"  Then  if  he  couldn't  expand  his  stomach 
and  extend  his  legs  to  the  exact  proportion  of  mine  I  would 
denounce  him.  You  would  call  me  a  bloomin'  idiot,  wouldn't 
you?  Well,  I  should  call  myself  just  as  much  of  an  idiot 
should  I  attempt  to  make  my  boy's  mentality  tally  with 
mine.  I  could  make  a  seeming  conformity  by  forcing  him 
to  be  a  hypocrite,  but  I  have  an  idea  that  will  not  leave  me 
that  if  we  draw  near  to  our  Master  it  must  be  because  we 
are  honest  men. 


A  LABOR  SAVING  DEVICE. 

We  lumbermen  who  have  so  many  times  gone  to  bed 
with  tired  legs  and  aching  backs  have  longed  for  easier  ways 
of  doing  our  work.  We  do  not  take  any  too  much  com- 
fort if  we  use  all  the  conveniences  possible  in  our  occupa- 
tions. I  am  a  thorough  believer  in  labor  savers.  That  man 
is  not  entirely  sane  who  does  not  want  as  easy  a  time  as  is 
consistent  with  the  successful  prosecution  of  his  business. 
In  Missouri  I  saw  a  yard  man  who  was  piling  some  timbers, 
and  he  went  at  it  as  if  there  was  not  such  a  thing  as  ingenu- 


368  REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER. 

ity  or  inventive  genius  in  the  world.  After  he  had  gotten 
through  lifting  the  timbers,  one  on  top  of  the  other,  he  sat 
down  on  a  pile  of  lumber  to  talk  for  a  few  minutes,  and  if 
he  was  not  a  played  out  individual  you  never  saw  one.  The 
perspiration  streamed  down  his  face  and  he  was  so  ex- 
hausted that  he  panted  like  a  race  horse.  That  is  no  way  to 
treat  ourselves.  We  are  a  finer  piece  of  machinery  than 
that  expensive  watch  of  yours,  and  worth  more  than  a  thou- 
sand watches.  And  no  doubt  you  are  so  careful  of  your 
watch  that  you  will  not  open  it  to  let  your  little  boy  see  the 
wheels,  afraid  that  a  particle  of  dust  may  get  into  the  works. 
By  and  by  this  man  will  get  stiff  with  rheumatism,  be  or- 


"Sometimes  you  crawl  over  them." 

dered  off  to  some  mineral  spring  arid  spend  a  hundred  times 
more  money  than  it  would  have  cost  him  to  hire  a  man  to 
share  the  lifting  with  him. 

The  little  device  referred  to  above  is  nearly  the  shape  of 
many  a  window  cleaner  you  have  seen.  Put  whiskers  on  it 
and  it  would  be  a  brush  with  which  windows  could  be 
washed.  It  is  composed  of  a  handle,  a  head  piece  and  two 
braces.  My  artistic  genius  makes  it  look  on  paper  like  the 
accompanying  cut.  You  are  mechanic  enough  to  make  one 
of  them  in  ten  minutes.  Maybe  you  cannot  guess  what  you 
could  do  with  such  a  thing  in  your  shed.  It  will  save  you 
wearing  your  shoe  taps  off  and  humping  your  back  when 
you  are  piling  lumber.  You  have  undoubtedly  reached  the 
conclusion  that  much  of  the  lumber  that  is  piled  in  your 


REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER.  369 

shed  ought  to  be  stuck.  There  is  safety  in  this  sticking, 
notwithstanding  the  boards  may  be  fairly  dry.  Ordinarily 
when  you  are  piling  you  go  over  to  the  other  end  of  the  pile 
— sometimes  have  to  crawl  over  there — to  place  the  lath. 
With  this  simple  little  implement  you  are  not  obliged  to  do 


"This  simple  little  implement." 


this.  You  need  not  go  away  from  the  front  end  of  the  pile 
at  all.  You  shove  on  the  board,  lift  it  up,  put  your  stick  on 
the  board  under  it,  and  with  this  little  apparatus  shove  the 
stick  back  just  where  you  want  it.  Try  it  once  and  you  will 
think  it  does  not  lack  much  of  taking  the  place  of  a  man. 


YARD  MAN'S  OPINION  OF  BULL  METHODS. 

I  had  not  long  to  stay  in  the  town,  and  the  yard  man 
said  he  would  go  to  the  hotel  and  eat  dinner  with  me  so 
we  could  put  in  all  the  time  together  possible.  We  sat 
down  at  an  old  fashioned  meal.  At  that  house  they  know 
nothing  about  course  dinners.  Everything  was  in  one  course, 
and  we  passed  the  dishes  from  one  to  the  other  as  we  who 
were  so  fortunate  as  to  have  been  there  used  to  do  on  the 
farm.  On  the  center  of  the  table  was  a  caster,  with  about 
half  a  dozen  bottles  in  it,  and  when  we  didn't  see  the  condi- 
ment we  wanted  we  would  give  it  a  whirl  so  that  the  pepper, 
or  vinegar,  or  mustard,  would  come  around  our  way.  You 
remember  this  piece  of  table  furniture,  don't  you?  Our 
wives  used  to  think  they  could  not  hold  up  their  heads 
in  society  unless  they  had  one  of  them.  Of  course  they  were 
pewter,  with  a  little  silver  washed  over  them,  but  they  were 
big  and  showy — and  that  was  the  point !  The  girl  at  this 
hotel  who  waited  on  table  was  actually  too  unsophisticated  to 


370 


REALM     OF     THE     RETAILER. 


flirt.  A  young  drummer  tried  to  be  a  little  cute  with  her, 
and  she  looked  at  him  as  innocently  as  though  she  were  a 
Jersey  calf.  Nevertheless  it  was  a  good  meal,  well  cooked 
and  plenty  of  it.  When  we  come  right  down  to  bottom  facts 
there  are  a  thousand  frills  in  life  which  are  only  skin  deep. 
The  landlady  came  out  and  asked  us  if  we  would  have  an- 
other piece  of  pie.  The  yard  man  introduced  her  to  me,  and 
she  sat  down  by  the  table,  and  before  we  had  done  chatting 
she  asked  me  how  many  children  I  had.  The  way  we  get 
along  in  the  world  largely  depends  on  the  kind  of  company 


"We  would  give  it  a  whirl." 

we  keep.  Had  I  not  been  with  this  yard  man  the  landlady 
no  doubt  would  have  passed  me  by  as  she  did  the  young 
drummer  who  was  eating  at  the  same  table.  She  said  noth- 
ing to  him  about  his  children. 

When  we  went  out  on  the  steps  and  the  yard  man  had 
whittled  a  match  for  a  toothpick,  he  said  he  meant  never  to 
give  serious  attention  again  to  a  bull  argument.  "The  manu- 
facturers ramfuzzle  us  at  every  turn,"  he  remarked.  "Last 
fall  and  early  winter  it  came  from  high  authority  up  in 
Minneapolis  that  the  supply  of  white  pine  would  be  1,000,- 
000,000  feet  short  in  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin,  and  the 


REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER.  371 

annual  figures  snowed  no  such  thing.  A  few  weeks  ago 
when  I  read  the  resolutions,  or  whatever  they  were,  pro- 
mulgated by  the  members  of  the  manufacturers'  association 
I  laughed  heartily.  To  me  it  looked  like  boy's  play.  If  I 
had  been  a  manufacturer  I  never  would  put  my  name  to 
such  a  document  as  that.  As  I  look  at  it,  it  was  an  indica- 
tion of  weakness.  Last  season,  when  elevator  and  railroad 
building  were  taking  lumber  in  such  quantities,  they  were 
at  no  pains  to  tell  us  that  lumber  was  high,  were  they  ?  Or 
why  it  should  be  high,  were  they?  When  a  commodity  is 
on  a  good  solid  basis  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  be 
explained  in  concert.  Why,  in  October,  I  was  in  Minne- 
apolis, and  they  were  as  independent  as  telegraph  poles.  I 
could  take  the  lumber  or  leave  it  alone.  At  that  time  they 
didn't  waste  a  minute  to  explain  to  me  why  the  lumber  should 
be  high. 

'The  southern  mill  men,  t6o,  got  up  on  the  roof.  There 
was  no  prospect  that  yellow  pine  would  go  lower !  Oh,  no ! 
They  said  it  had  got  there  to  stay,  this  time.  It  was  going 
to  sympathize  with  white  pine,  and  white  pine  would  never 
go  into  the  basement,  nor  even  down  on  the  parlor  floor 
again.  I  took  stock  in  what  they  said  about  yellow  pine, 
and  as  a  result  I  have  lumber  in  my  yard  that  I  could  have 
bought  for  $5  a  thousand  cheaper  since.  I  was  too  confid- 
ing ;  that  was  what  was  the  matter  with  me." 

"What  do  you  think  about  future  prices  ?"  I  asked. 

"I  think  they  will  continue  to  bob  up  and  down  like  a 
sinker,  just  as  to  my  knowledge  they  have  for  the  past 
dozen  years.  Say!"  he  suddenly  exclaimed,  pulling  the  old 
arm  chair  around  more  in  front  of  me,  "I  will  tell  you  the 
mistake  we  make  in  buying.  We  are  afraid  of  high  prices, 
and  we  are  afraid  of  low  prices.  There  is  some  reason  why 
we  should  be  afraid  of  high  prices,  but  there  is  no  reason 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  why  low  prices  should  scare  us. 
When  lumber  is  selling  at  low  prices  is  when  we  should 
stock  up.  Lay  in  then  for  all  there  is  in  us!  We  may  not 
expect  to  sell  it  all  right  away,  but  there  is  no  better  prop- 


372  REALM    OF    THE    RETAILER. 

erty  in   the  world  than   lumber  when   it  is   bought   away 
down,  for  we  know  it  won't  stay  there  long." 

A  team  drove  up  in  front  of  the  yard  and  the  dealer  said 
he  would  have  to  go  over  and  see  what  was  wanted.  I  set- 
tled my  dinner  a  few  minutes  longer,  tried  to  find  out  from 
the  drummer  who  was  taking  his  after-dinner  pipe  how  the 
shoe  market  was,  paid  my  bill  and  walked  down  to  the  sta- 
tion. 


Lumber  Sheds. 


There  is  not  space  in  this  book  to  give  any  elaborate  de- 
tailed plans  of  lumber  sheds,  but  the  subject  is  so  important 

a  one  to  retailers  that  the  plans  which  follow  may  be  of 

J 

assistance  to  many.  At  any  rate  they  will  be  suggestive. 
.:  They  show  some  improved  ideas  in  shed  arrangements, 
though  in  the  AMERICAN  LUMBERMAN  have  been  published 
many  others  of  different  sizes  and  arrangements  and  adapt- 
ed to  different  locations  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  to  differ- 
ent classes  of  trade. 

Plan  Xo.  i  is  of  a  shed  designed  to  take  care  of  every 
-,  item  in  a  country  yard  carrying  a  moderate  stock.  The 
;  ground  plan  gives  a  general  idea  of  the  arrangement  of  the 
interior,  together  with  that  of  the  office  and  its  fixtures.  The 
joists  are  laid  and  braced  as  shown  in  the  center.  The  raft- 
ers are  placed  on  girders  as  shown,  the  girders  being  6xio 
inches  and  supported  throughout  the  entire  building  with 
8x8  posts. 

The  cross  sections  show  the  arrangement  of  bins  and  par- 
titions. The  first  two  cross  sections  give  opposite  sides  of 
the  right  hand  alley  looking  from  the  front,  showing  on  the 
office  side  the  door  into  the  office,  and  the  windows,  with 
room  for  sash,  doors  etc.  over  it ;  and  on  the  other  side  2- 
story  spaces  for  doors  and  sash,  back  of  it  rooms  for  screens, 
roofing  and  oils  and  a  molding  rack. 

The  second  two  elevations  sh<nv  the  opposite  sides- of  the 
left  hand  alley  or  drive wa\ . 

The  shed  is  lighted  from  the  four  large  doors  at  the 
driveways,  the  doors  being  each  14x15  feet.  All  the  floor 

373 


374 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


PLAN  NO.  1— GROUND  PLAN. 

joists  are  on  an  average  of  6  inches  from  the  ground.  The 
uprights  partitioning  off  the  stalls  are  4x4' s.  It  might  be 
said  in  this  connection  that  lumber  should  not  be  piled  on 
flooring  joists  but  should  have  independent  support  from 
the  ground. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


375 


xgj^^^^ 


PLAN  NO.  1-ELEVATIONS  OF  RIGHT  HAND  ALLEY. 

.  v  ,•'     •    -  -* 


^^ 


PLAN  NO.  1-ELEVATIONS  OF  LEFT  HAND  ALLEY. 


A  modern  shed  of  a  design  popular  in  Illinois,  also  hav- 
ing two  driveways,  is  designated  as  plan  No.  2.  Only  a  single 
view  is  given,  but  it  presents  a  fairly  good  idea  of  the  shed. 

In  size  the  shed  is  90x112  feet,  and  12  feet  high  at  the 


376 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


direct     to    the     foundation, 
sought     in     scientific     bracing. 


lowest  point.  The  foun- 
dation consists  of  thir- 
teen brick  walls  project- 
ing out  of  the  ground  a 
little,  on  top  of  which 
are  8x8  sills  securely 
pinned  together.  As 
may  be  noted  from  the 
sectional  view,  the  five 
center  walls  are  higher 
than  those  on  the  sides. 
This  increased  hight  ex- 
tends back  70  feet.  The> 
object  in  leaving  this 
portion  higher  was  to 
facilitate  the  handling 
of  heavy  articles,  such 
as  lime,  cement,  etc. 
Thus  all  lifting,  or 
practically  all,  is  done 
away  with.  This  space 
is  in  use  for  sash,  doors, 
blinds,  cement  etc. 

The  sectional  view 
brings  out  what  is  con- 
sidered the  best  manner 
of  bracing  a  lumber 
shed.  It  consists  in 
cutting  2x4/5  between  the 
uprights,  starting  in 
every  case  at  the  founf 
dation  and  continuing  a 
straight  line  of  bracing 
to  the  top.  This  method 
transfers  all  the  strain 
which  is  the  end  always 
It  will  also  be  no- 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  377 

ticed  that  the  uprights  are  all  4x6^5.  This  imparts 
great  strength;  in  fact,  it  would  seem  a  strength 
greater  than  is  required,  as  the  uprights  do  not  carry  any- 
thing except  so  much  as  may  be  piled  on  the  upper  deck. 
The  bracing  of  the  shed  from  end  to  end,  or  in  the  other 
direction  from  that  shown  by  the  cross  section,  is  equally  sci- 
entific and  renders  it  exceptionally  strong. 

Bents  like  that  $hown  in  the  sectional  view  are  placed 
eight  feet  from  centers  throughout  the  length  of  the  wall. 
This  8-foot-'space  leaves  the  piling  spaces  of  desirable  size, 
besides  affording  the  requisite  strength  for  the  superstruc- 
ture. Around  the  outside,  though  it  is  not  shown  in  the 
sectional  view,  2x4  nailing  girts  are  cut  between  the  posts 
at  the  proper  distance,  and  the  outside  is  covered  with 
shiplap  up  and  down  nailed  to  the  girts.  The  roof  is  sheathed 
solid  with  No.  3  boards  and  then  covered  with  pressed 
steel  standing  seam  roofing.  •  . 

The  shed  is  lighted  by  fourteen  windows,  six  lights,  12x16, 
on  each  side,  in  position  as  indicated  by  the  cross  section. 
These  windows  are  hung  on  hinges  at  their  tops,  so  that  in 
summer  they  may  be  opened  to  afford  greater  ventilation  and 
keep  the  shed  cool.  Additional  ventilation  is  furnished  by 
Louver  board  work  in  the  shape  of  three  large  ventilators 
4x6  and  4^  feet  high  located  at  the  comb  of  the  roof.  These 
are  particularly  useful  in  the  winter  when  the  shed  is  en- 
tirely closed  and  ventilation  at  any  other  point  is  not  to  be 
obtained. 

The  driveways  are  18  feet  wide,  a  width  which  lumber- 
men will  appreciate.  On  each  side  of  each  drivexvay  are 
walks  three  and  a  half  feet  wide,  which  enables  one  to  get 
at  the  stock  piled  on  the  upper  decks.  These  driveways  are 
connected  by  runboards  at  four  points  on  each  side,  so  that 
one  need  not  walk  the  length  of  the  shed  in  order  to  cross 
over.  When  the  walks  reach  that  portion  of  the  center  in 
which  is  located  the  sash  and  blind  house  there  are  steps 
which  enable  one  to  rise  up  to  the  level  of  the  deck  or, 


378 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER. 


PLAN  NO.  3— VERTICAL  CROSS  SECTION,  SHOWING  FRAMING. 

rather,  the  top  of  the  sash  house,  which  is  utilized  for  piling 
stock  of  various  kinds.  One  portion  of  the  space  over  sash 
house  and  at  the  front  end  is  used  as  a  molding  rack.  The 
rack  is  24  feet  long,  containing  52  holes  or  pockets  for  mold- 
ing. 


REALM  OF  THE  RETAILER.  379 

This  shed  was  designed  and  built  by  J.  V.  Price,  of  Casey, 
111.,  by  whom  it  is  in  use  with  entire  satisfaction. 

The  last  plan  is  of  a  single  driveway,  2-story  shed.  The 
particular  shed  from  which  this  plan  was  taken  is  that 
owned  by  S.  E.  Sarles  &  Co.,  of  Monticello,  Iowa.  The 
plan  gives  a  cross  section  showing  the  framing.  The  length 
of  this  shed  can  be  extended  to  suit  the  needs  of  any  dealer. 
It  is  48x80  feet  in  size  and  built  of  heavy  timber.  The  sizes 
are  all  given  on  the  plan  except  the  depth  of  the  lumber 
bins,  which  is  16  feet.  The  siding  is  of  4-inch  fencing,  bev- 
eled and  nailed  to  2x4  studs  with  a  wide  crack  between  each 
board,  giving  plenty  of  ventilation  without  leaving  any  large 
opening.  The  bins  are  of  equal  size,  divided  by  the  8x8  up- 
rights ten  feet  apart,  with  4x6  uprights  half  way  between. 
All  heavy  stock  is  piled  below  and  light  stock  above.  There 
are  six  windows  to  each  side  built  out  from  the  roof.  The 
plates  are  three  planks  spiked  together,  and  the  whole  shed 
rests  on  masonry  piers  and  walls.  It  was  built  in  1893  and 
cost  about  $800,  complete. 


INDEX. 


PAGE. 

Acceptance  of  lumber  by  unloading 291 

Advantages   of   small   towns. 145 

Advertising  in  retail  trade 22 

Agents    and    their    authority 321 

Agricultural  implements  and  lumber  trade 37 

Amusements  and   business 212 

Annoyances  and  how  to   meet  them 69 

Appearances  and  their  trade  value : 43 

Arbitration    in  trade   disputes 114 

Associations,   retail    192 

B 

Barbed  wire   fence 358 

Bigness  not  an  excellence no 

Bills   should   be   rendered   promptly 49 

Bills    should   give    details 216 

Bills    with    delivery    47 

Binding  and  loading * 185 

Binder   of   simple   design 196 

Binder  for   loads 196 

Blind  yards    287 

Bolster  for  lumber  wagons 195 

Bookkeeping  a  protection 129 

Bookkeeping  essential  349 

Bookkeeping,  importance  of  it 130 

Books   of   receipts 275 

Bridge  floors   305 

Building  hardware  as  side  line 174 

Buying    right    • 168 

Buying,  time  to  buy 18 

Buying  yards,  methods  of 112 

c 

Cancelling  orders  320 

Carelessness  in  bookkeeping 128 

Carpenters  and  their  peculiarities. ,  .  318 

Cash  sales  versus  credit 74 

Charity  and  the  retail  lumbermen 92 

Character    reading    important 107 

Charging  when  lumber  is  delivered 128 

Checks  on  local  bank  an  imposition 125 

Coal  as  a  side  line 89 

Coal  house  must  be  strong 87 

Coal  trade  and  its  troubles 299 

381 


382  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Collection,  difficulty  of  making  them 203 

Collecting  from  farmers 335 

Collecting  retail  accounts 166 

Comfortable    offices    354 

Commercial  rating  of  customers 83 

Competition  between  local  dealers 179 

Competition,    different    types 14 

Competition    in    buying 56 

Competition   in  prices    55 

Contractors  as  customers 140 

Contractors  profitable   friends 102 

Contractors,  their  importance  to  the  retailers 157 

Conventions  for   retailers 263 

Cost  of  selling  lumber 209 

Cramped  quarters   276 

Credit   strengthened  by  discounting 47 

Credit  to  customers 307 

Cross    sticking    device 367 

Cutting  prices  in  local  trade 21 

D 

Daily   statements    348 

Deadbeats  among  customers 107 

Delivery,  free   293 

Delivery    wagons 293 

Department  store  idea  in  lumber no 

Details  in  bills 216 

Diplomacy  in  handling  customers 39 

Discounting  bills 46 

Displaying  cottage  doors 54 

Disputes  between  wholesalers  and  retailers 221 

Door  exhibiting  device 177 

Door  fastener   200 

Doors,   method   of   displaying 54 

Doors  of  various  sorts 320 

Doors,   plan   for   storing 142 

Door  rack  142 

Doors,  storm  330 

Drain  pipes,  how  to  pile 269 

Duplicate   receipts    273 

Dust  and  damage 277 

Duty  on  lumber  361 

E 

Eaves  troughs   for  sheds 206 

Eaves  troughs  on  shed  hoods 215 

Employees,  shortage  of  in  yard  and  office 238 

Expansion  in  retail  business   150 

F 

Fair  prices  trade  winners 57 

Farmers  and  their  credit 335 

Farmers  as  lumber   dealers 138 

Farmer  customers  and  how  to  please  them. 24 


INDEX.  383 

PAGE; 

Farmers  as  capitalists. 336 

Farmer  trade,  how  to  get  it 118 

Farmer  yards 138 

Fashions  in  stock 271 

Fences,  barbed  wire 357 

Fencing,  not  used  for  fencing 359 

Fighting  between  yards 179 

Filling  orders  properly 134 

Flooring,  hardwood 246 

Fourth  of  July 144 

Fresh  goods  sell  best 278 

G 

Games  in  lumber  offices 91 

Gates  for  yards 313 

Gifts  to  get  trade 119 

Glazed  sash,  care  of 143 

Good  nature  toward  customers 39 

Good  stocks  and  good  trade 229 

Grade  adapted  to  use 26 

Grades  and  kicks 223 

Grading  customers  as  to  responsibility 85 

Grades  in  yard  men <. 108 

Gutters  for  sheds «. 206 

H 

Hardware  as  a  side  line 77 

Heavy  timbers  and  how  to  handle  them 72 

Hemlock  as  yard  stock 228 

High  grade  retail  stocks 38 

Holding  trade 254 

Honesty  a  paying  policy 279 

House  bill  estimates 242 

Hypnotic  power 96 

I 

Implements  as  a  side  line 35 

Important  trade 35 

Insurance  by  parties  not  owners 292 

Insurance  on  blind  yards 291 

Interest  on  farmer's  accounts 335 

K 

Kicks  and  how  to  make  them 224 

Knowing  one's  business 232 

L 

Large  towns  and  heavy  expenses 66 

Lath  and  their  scarcity 343 

Lath,  patent 207 

Lazy  men  in  retail  trade 197 

Legal  points 291 

Lending  lumber 92 


384  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Letter  writing 181 

Lime  house  of  novel  design 220 

Line  yard  men 187 

Line  yards  and  retail  associations 198 

Loading  lumber 185 

Loafing  in  lumber  offices 91 

Local  trade  disputes 1 14 

Location  and  competition 332 

Location  in  town  as  trade  getter 106 

Location  of  yards 261 

Lumber  jack 363 

Lumber  returned  from  jobs 201 

Lumber  sheds,  plans 373 

Lumber  tariff  and  business 360 

M 

Managers  of  retail  yards 205 

Managers  of  yards 234 

Maple  and  birch  flooring 246 

Millwork  estimates 242 

Moods  in  selling 190 

N 

New  towns  and  new  yards 62 

o 

Oak  as  bridge  stuff 3°4 

Offices,  comfortable  retail 52 

One-man  lumber  yards 79 

P 

Paint  as  side  line 175 

Partners  should  supplement  each  other 136 

Patent  lath 207 

Patent  lath 345 

Patterns  in  house  finish 272 

Payment,  prompt  and  otherwise 45 

Pessimists 162 

Plaster  as  side  line 141 

Picking  over  stock 259 

Pile  binder 237 

Piling  in  lumber  sheds 117 

Piling  lumber,  an  aid : 211 

Piling  lumber  easily 368 

Pleasing  customers 42 

Pleasing  the  farmer  customer 1 18 

"Poachers"  and  how  to  keep  them  out 102 

Politics  in  trade 58 

Posts,  the  kind  farmers  want 133 

Price  advances,  reasons  for 218 

Prices  and  cancelling  orders 323 

Prices  at  wholesale  should  be  steady 81 

Price  lists  above  the  market 268 

Price  lists  as  educators 265 


INDEX.  385 

PAGE. 

Prices  too  low  at  retail 302 

Progress  of  twenty  years 109 

Q 

Quarrels  among  local  dealers 124 

R 

Railroad  extensions  and  new  yards 62 

Railroad  track  versus  downtown  yard 261 

Rating  books 308 

Receipts  for  delivered  lumber 295 

Receipting  for  payments 274 

Retail  association,  some  objections 192 

Retail  yards,  methods  of  buying. 112 

Returned  material 201 

Roller  for  handling  heavy  stock 72 

s 

Salesmen's  authority  repudiated 321 

Salt  to  lay  dust 324 

Sash  racks 143 

Scant  thickness  of  lumber 184 

Screen  door  display .t 178 

Schemes  for  getting  orders 171 

Screens,  good  and  bad 226 

Selling  ability 96 

Selling  aided  by  good  appearance 162 

Selling  by  linear  measure 148 

Selling  for  cash 73 

Selling  lumber,  cost  of 209 

Selling  lumber  from  sample 105 

Selling  to  the  farmer 99 

Selling  what  people  want 152 

Settlements  with  regular  customers 76 

Shed  alleys  and  salt » 325 

Shed  defects 27 

Shed  doors 3J5 

Sheds  as  business  getters 329 

Sheds,  closed  versus  open 32 

Sheds,  division  of  bins 117 

Sheds  for  retail  yards,  plans  for 373 

Sheds  for  shingles 33 

Sheds,  length  of 28 

Sheds,  open  and  closed 94 

Sheds,  ventilation  of 29 

Shingles,  retail  display  of 231 

Shingles,  thick  and  thin 184 

Side  lines 174 

Side  lines 35 

Side  lines 77 

Slovenliness  in  yard  management 156 

Small  retail  sto'cks 229 

Small  stocks  means  small  business 290 


386  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Small  towns  and  light  expenses 64 

Statements  and  bills 166 

Stationery  of  a  retail  business 338 

Steady  prices  wanted 81 

Stock  rooms  in  retail  business 159 

Storm  doors 330 

Substitution  in  filling  orders 127 

Sycamore  as  a  finishing  wood —  246 

T 

Tab  on  yard  hands 186 

Tact  in  handling  customers 281 

Thanksgiving  Day  reflections. 255 

Thickness  of  lumber 183 

Thinking  is  hard  work 59 

Tricks  of  wholesalers 126 

u 

Use  of  lumber,  knowledge  of 25 

w 

Wagons,  device  for  high  load 363 

Wagons,  light  versus  heavy  for  delivery 294 

Wagon  stakes 250 

Wholesaler's  complaint  of  retailers 124 

Window  screens 225 

Windows,  profits  in  glazing 170 

Winter  in  small  towns 88 

Women  as  customers 297 

Worrying  is  foolish 329 

Y 

Yard  as  real  estate  investment 262 

Yard  location  in  town 332 

Yard  managers 234 

Yards,  are  there  too  many? 121 


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